Marked By Magic - Lindsay Buroker

   2023; 337 pages.  Book 1 (out of 2) in the “Tracking Trouble” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres: Humorous Fantasy; Dragons; Urban Fantasy.  Overall Rating: 8*/10.

 

    Nobody likes dark elves.  Arwen Forester has her own particular reasons for hating them.  She has a spider tattoo on her arm to remind her of that.  You can see it on the book’s cover image.

 

    Arwen lives quietly on her father’s farm out in the sticks.  One day she is visited by an elf warrior who demands she tell him where to find the local dark elves.  He was rather uppity about the whole thing.

 

    The elf found Arwen by assuming the form of a dragon, and using a dragon’s heightened sense to locate her.  That means he’s probably a cross-breed: half-elf and half-dragon.

 

    Nobody likes half-breeds.  They even have a pejorative word for them: mongrels.  Arwen knows all about being called a mongrel.  She’s half human.

 

    And half dark-elf.

 

What’s To Like...

    Marked By Magic is set in the present-day Seattle area, with a particular focus on the suburb of Bellevue.  It reminded me of Jim Butcher’s Chicago setting for his Dresden Files series: a minority comprised of magical creatures living among the vastly more numerous humans, with some inevitable friction and strained interactions arising between the two groups.  The main difference is that Marked By Magic is lighter in tone than the Harry Dresden books; the mood is closer to Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse series.

 

    The main plotline follows Arwen’s tense relationship with the elf-dragon Starblade.  Arwen, an expert tracker, initially agrees to hunt down the dark elves for him, but later accepts money from other parties to hunt down half-breed dragons.  Needless to say, this leads to trust issues for both protagonists.

 

    If you like your Urban Fantasy books to contain lots of magical critters (I do!), you’ll love this book.  Besides the standard mix of elves, dwarves, dragons, gnomes, and ogres; there are also 7-foot-tall trolls, half-orcs, kobolds, and even the rarely seen soul drykars and vampire jellyfish.  One immortal from the magical world gets mentioned here: the spider-demon Zagorwalek (try saying that name ten times real fast).  He, and other gods, don’t play a big part in this tale, but I wonder if that’s going to change as the series progresses.

 

    There's lots of adventure and intrigue to keep you turning the pages, but Lindsay Buroker also finds ways to mix in some insightful thoughts about prejudices against others, be they mongrels, magical species, or just anyone different than what we are.  I also was thrilled to learn that the game of chess is played by the fantasy-world folks, since I’ve been a chess devotee all my life.  But over there it’s called Thyslyar.

 

    The ending was suitably tense and exciting, with a couple of neat plot twists thrown in, by both the good guys and the baddies.  The Epilogue clears up the money-for-hire angle, as well as one that concerned coffee grounds (say what?!).  The Arwen/Starblade plot thread remains open, but hey, that’s what sequels are for.

 

Kewlest New Word…

Mycophile (n.): a devotee of mushrooms.

Others: Inimical (adj.).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.6*/5, based on 1,416 ratings and 85 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.57*/5, based on 850 ratings and 48 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “Are these leaves?”  Amber plucked something out of [Arwen’s] hair.  “And twigs?  Didn’t you shower and wash this . . . nest this morning?”

    “I did shower.  But then I walked through the woods to Duvall so I could get a ride over here from Sigrid.”

    “Did you drag your hair along the trail?”  Shaking her head, Amber fished out another leaf and grabbed a brush and comb.

    “It wasn’t light yet, and the branches can claw at you.  There aren’t any direct trails, so sometimes I have to clear the way.”

    “With your head?”  (loc. 2512)

 

    Amber turned back and lifted a finger, but she paused when she spotted Arwen’s bare forearms.  The loose sleeves of the jumpsuit had fallen to her elbows.  Arwen jerked her hands down.

    “You got another weird tattoo?”  Amber gaped.  “What is that?  A dragon?”

    “Yes.  It was not by choice.”

    “What?  You were walking by a tattoo shop, and the artist pounced you with an ink gun?”

    “I . . . was walking inside a dragon’s lair, and he pounced.  With magic.”

    “What is wrong with your life?”

    “Recently, a lot.”  (pg. 2579)

 

Kindle Details…

    Marked By Magic presently sells for $0.99 at Amazon.  The sequel, Bound By Blood, is priced at $4.99.  The third book in the trilogy, Driven By Destiny, is due to be released on January 10, 2024.  Lindsay Buroker is a prolific writer of both Sci-Fi and Fantasy novels, available both as standalones and in bundles, and all reasonably priced, and occasionally offered at enticing discounts.

 

Out of the cranberry bog and into the pig wallow.  (loc. 1048)

    I couldn’t find much to quibble about in Marked By Magic.  There’s only a smattering of profanity (6 instances in the first 25%), and that helps keep the story’s tone light-hearted.  There are, however, a couple of “adult situations”, but those keep the story’s tone from becoming too juvenile.

 

    I only noted one typo, an Amber’s/Arwen’s mix-up, and even then, I only caught it when choosing the first excerpt for this review.  Whoever the editors were, they did a good job.

 

    Last, and least, Arwen apparently is a character in an earlier Lindsay Buroker Urban Fantasy series, who now gets to be the main protagonist in one.  There were a number of references to Arwen’s backstory, all of which were lost on me since this was my first book by this author.  But that’s not her fault, it’s mine for choosing a spin-off series.

 

    That’s all I can gripe about.  Marked By Magic was a literary treat for me, and a great introduction to an author I’ve been meaning to try for quite some time.  So if you’ve read all the Sookie Stackhouse books, and are looking for a similar type of world-setting, I highly recommend you give this one a try.

 

    8 Stars.  One last thing.  The brief mention of soil amendments strongly resonated with me.  My 45-year career as a chemist was with a company whose main line of products were soil amendments.  They’re the reason you and I aren’t starving despite huge amounts of farmland being turned into housing developments.

Hounded - Kevin Hearne

   2011; 289 pages.  Book 1 (out of 10) in the “Iron Druid Chronicles” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres: Urban Fantasy; Mythology; Action-Adventure.  Overall Rating: 9½*/10.

 

    Say hello to Atticus O’Sullivan.  He runs a modest occult bookstore in Tempe, Arizona, where he has a side business of selling herbal concoctions at his store, mostly to the same customers who come to his place seeking metaphysical tomes.

 

    Atticus seems like nice young fellow, but he’s hiding a couple of secrets.  First, Atticus is his alias; his real name is Siodhachan O Suileabhain, a fine ancient Celtic appellation.  Yeah, try saying that one ten times real fast.  And although Atticus looks young, he’s actually more than 2,000 years old.  He’s the last living Druid.

 

    He’s made some powerful enemies over the centuries, some of them deities.  The main one is Aenghus Og , the Celtic god of love (among other things) who’s been chasing Atticus for several hundred years now.  Being an occult bookseller is just Atticus’s latest undercover disguise.

 

    Atticus has just been told by the Morrigan (who?) that Aenghus Og has seen through his disguise, and is on his way to kill him.  It’s time for Atticus to flee once more.

 

    Too bad he’s tired of running away.

 

What’s To Like...

    Hounded is the opening book in a 10-volume urban fantasy series called The Iron Druid Chronicles, and is told in the first-person POV, Atticus's.  I presume this is a completed series since Book 10 was published in 2018, and Kevin Hearne's more recent novels are in a different series.  Our protagonist is a modern-day Druid, and we follow his adventures, which mostly consist of magical creatures sent to either kill Atticus, hoodwink him into a trap, or contrive things to where he owes favors to some person, deity, or magical creature.

 

    The tale is set in and around Tempe, Arizona, home to my alma mater, Arizona State University and where I lived for many years.  So the numerous local references resonated with me, and include: Scottsdale Memorial Hospital, Newman Center, the Arizona Republic newspaper, Papago Park, Mill and University Avenues, the Superstition Mountains, and the landmark Irish pub, Rula Bula.  They’re all real, although that last one has since gone out of business.

 

    Magical creatures abound in the story, among them the Fae, an Iron Elemental, the Morrigan, the Tuatha De Danann, Fir Bolgs, demons, the Zoryas, and a slew of Wiccan witches.  Also, some animals, including wolfhounds and stags, are telepathic.

 

    The action starts right away, with Atticus getting mugged by a gang of fairies on page 4.  The supporting characters were a fascinating bunch; Atticus’s bestie is a magic-infused dog named Oberon, and his two lawyers, both extremely competent, are a vampire and a werewolf.  My favorite not-the-protagonist was the widow MacDonagh, Atticus's neighbor, and witness to several strange happenings.  I liked Hieronymus Bosch and former Arizona Diamondback pitcher Randy Johnson getting nods, and I enjoyed learning how to go about paying off favors to vampires: in wineglass quantities of your blood!  

 

    Everything builds to a gory, twisty, and exciting showdown.  Both combatants have tricks up their sleeve.  The final chapter and Epilogue tie up a couple secondary plotlines.  The Acknowledgments section (page 291) and the Wikipedia article about Kevin Hearne (the link is here), are worthwhile reads.  Hounded is both a standalone story and part of a series.

 

Kewlest New Word…

    Sybarite (n.): a person who is self-indulgent in their fondness for sensuous luxury.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.5*/5, based on 8,943 ratings and 1,663 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.09*/5, based on 86,257 ratings and 7,468 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “Ah, so this is just some vague augury,” I said.

    “No, the augury was quite specific,” the Morrigan replied.  “A mortal doom gathers about you here, and you must fly if you wish to avoid it.”

    “See?  There you go again.  You get this way every year around Samhain,” I said.  “If it isn’t Thor coming to get me, it’s one of the Olympians.  Remember that story last year?  Apollo was offended by my association with the Arizona State Sun Devils—"  (pg. 10)

 

    I would never, ever tire in battle.  I suffered no fatigue at all.  And if I needed it, I could whip up a binding or two against my enemies or summon up a temporary burst of strength that would allow me to wrestle a bear.

    It had been a long, long time since I had felt the need to summon so much power.  But then again, I hadn’t been in a scrap like this since I’d waded into the mosh pit at a Pantera concert.  (pg. 312)

 A nonaggression treaty signed in blood?  Something about that struck me as oxymoronic.  (pg. 285)

    I don’t really have anything major to quibble about in Hounded, hence the high rating.  The cussing is fairly light; I noted just 14 instances in the first 20% of the book, although three of those were f-bombs.

 

    I read Hounded in the paperback format, after being reminded that it was on my TBR shelf by the Kindle format being temporarily discounted a few weeks ago.  Here’s hoping that more e-books in the series are put on sale in the near future.

 

    That’s about it for the nitpicking.  I found Hounded to be well-written, appropriately witty, and with a captivating storyline that kept me turning the pages.  Full disclosure: I’m all about reading any book with Druids in it.

 

    9½ Stars.  One last thing.  In the Acknowledgments section the author gives a nod of appreciation to the Society for Creative Anachronism.  These are the people who like to dress up in medieval fashion and reenact things like jousting tournaments.  They are the reason the Renaissance Fair exists.

 

    My first experience with SCA was many decades ago, when I came across two knights in armor beating the crap out of each other in a swordfight on the lawn of the ASU Hayden Library.  Lords and ladies-in-waiting were watching the combat.  What makes this memorable is that I was under the influence of a hallucinogen at the time.  It was quite the trip.

White Night - Jim Butcher

   2007; 495 pages.  Book 9 (out of 17) in the “Dresden Files” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres: Urban Fantasy; Paranormal Thriller.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

    At first glance it looked like just an ordinary suicide.  There was even a plain-as-day suicide note.  It read: I’m so tired of being afraid.  There’s nothing left.  Forgive me.  Janine.

 

    All so very tidy.  Almost a bit too tidy.  Sergeant Karrin Murphy of the Chicago PD wonders whether some paranormal activity isn’t involved.  So she’s asked Chicago’s resident wizard, Harry Dresden to come have a look.

 

    Harry does some magical sleuthing and sure enough, there’s a hidden second message near the corpse.  Ordinary humans can’t see it, but wizards can.  All it says is Exodus 22:18.  Harry knows the verse.  Suffer not a witch to live.

 

    Someone apparently has gone out of their way to deliver a message to Harry.

 

What’s To Like...

    White Night has the standard Harry Dresden structure, and that’s a compliment, not a criticism.  The single murder investigation rapidly expands into a serial killing spree, which then further spreads out into a complicated game of paranormal politics.  Harry has to sort through all three levels, as well as figure out why his brother Thomas is acting so strange and withdrawn lately.

 

    It was nice to see the Wiccans get some attention, even if they are badly overmatched against their paranormal predators.  I also liked the deepening of the character Johnnie Marcone, the local gangster kingpin.  And the rebellious streak in Molly, Harry’s recently-acquired apprentice, made me chuckle.

 

    Action and intrigue are both present in satisfying quantities.  Alliances within the vampire community are rather “fluid”, which makes for plenty of deception and bloodshed.  Harry gets lots of chances to cast lots of spells, and even uses his soul-gazing talent at one point.

 

    As always, the story is told from the first-person point-of-view, Harry’s.  The chapters are relatively short, with 43 of them covering 495 pages, so there’s always a good place to stop for the night.  Jim Butcher’s stellar musical tastes once again shine through, with nods along the way to an eclectic assortment including Weird Al Yankovic, The Police, Santana, Aerosmith, Metallica, and one of my favorite classical composers, Vivaldi.

 

    Everything builds to a drawn-out (80 pages or so), exciting ending.  Plot twists abound, and both Harry and the Vampire factions bring hidden resources to the final confrontation to aid in their cause.  The last chapter serves as an epilogue, which I thought was a really nice touch.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.8/5 based on 4,530 ratings and 698 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.39/5 based on 113,896 ratings and 2,926 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    Anna’s eyes suddenly widened.  “You two were together.”  She turned to Elaine.  “That’s how you know him.”

    “It was a long time ago,” I said.

    Elaine winked at me.  “But you never really forget your first.”

    “You never forget your first train wreck, either.”

    “Train wrecks are exciting.  Fun, even,” Elaine said.  She kept smiling, though her eyes turned a little sad.  “Right up until the very last part.”  (pg. 112)

 

    A large man came through the door.  He was built like a bulldozer made out of slabs of raw, workingman muscle, thick bones, and heavy sinews.  He had a neck as thick as Murphy’s waist, short red hair, and beady eyes under a heavy brow.  His expression looked like it had been permanently locked into place a few seconds after someone had kicked his puppy through a plate-glass window.

    "Hendricks," I greeted Marcone’s primary enforcer with convivial cheer.  “’Sup?”  (pg. 279)

 

“I’m getting dumber by the minute,” I confirmed.  “Ask anybody.”  (pg. 358)

    There were about a dozen cusswords in the first 10% of White Night, which is about normal for the series.  There were no rolls-in-the-hay or other adult situations, which was much to Harry’s dismay since his ex, Elaine, plays a prominent role in the story, and he still is fond of her.

 

    One of my favorite characters, Bob-the-Skull, doesn’t get much ink, and we don’t spend much time in the always-interesting parallel dimension called The Nevernever.  But that’s offset by Harry’s dog, “Mouse”, having a major role in the story.  I remain convinced that Mouse is no ordinary canine.

 

    That’s about all I can think of to gripe about.  Overall, I found White Night to be a solid addition to the Harry Dresden series, full of thrills, spills, and chills and above all, replete with Jim Butcher’s wry wit and masterful storytelling.

 

    8 Stars.

Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman

   1996; 370 pages.  New Author? : No, but it’s been a while.  Genres : Urban Fantasy; British Contemporary Literature; Paranormal Fiction.  Overall Rating: 8*/10.

 

    Richard Mayhew has a good life.  He’s got a decent job and a girlfriend, Jessica, whom he loves very much, even if she is working very hard on changing him into a better man.

 

    Richard Mayhew is an honorable guy.  When he comes across a girl crumpled and bleeding on the sidewalk, he knows to do the right thing: take her to his apartment and tend to her wounds as best he can.

 

    Richard Mayhew is a bit naïve.  His girlfriend Jessica is not amused by his act of chivalry and lets him know it in no uncertain terms.  And that’s just the beginning of Richard’s troubles.  He’s about to lose Jessica, lose his job, and lose his apartment.  Amazingly, he's also about to lose the very city he lives in—London, England.

 

    All because he took pity on the injured girl named Door.  Hmm.  I wonder why they call her that?  Probably it’s short for “Doreen”.

 

    What other explanation could there be?

 

What’s To Like...

    Neverwhere was published in 1996 and was Neil Gaiman’s first “solo” novel, coming six years after he co-authored Good Omens with Terry Pratchett.  Both of these novels are fantasy tales, but where Good Omens is steeped in comedy (what else would you expect from the pen of Terry Pratchett?), Neverwhere is a darker work of Urban Fantasy.

 

    The story is set entirely in the two London.  The first half of the book focuses almost exclusively on worldbuilding, which is a Neil Gaiman forte.  Richard and the reader explore “London Below”, aka "The Underside”, meeting all sorts of strange characters and otherworldly species, while getting entangled in all sorts of dangerous plotlines.

 

    The main storyline finally gets underway in the second half of the book, and the major story threads include: a.) finding an angel named Islington; b.) acquiring some sort of “key” and bringing it to Islington; c.) helping Door figure out who killed her family, and why; d.) assisting Hunter in her quest to kill “the Beast of London”; and e.) somehow getting Richard back to “London Above” (aka “The Upside”) and back in good graces with Jessica.

 

    Gaiman’s attention to the details of London Below is masterful, to the point of almost overshadowing the action.  Among the things Richard and the reader encounter are The Floating Market, Earl’s Court, The Great Beast of London, Black Friars, The Velvets, The Golden, The Sewer Folk, and the Rat-Speakers.  I chuckled at “Blaise’s Reel” (be careful what you wish for!), and got a greater respect for the admonition “Mind The Gap!”

 

    The ending is spread out over the last 50 pages or so.  It’s a bit predictable, but I nevertheless found it to be fun.  Most of the plotlines get tied up nicely, and the last chapter serves as both an Epilogue and a teaser for a sequel which, ANAICT, was never written.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Vol-au-vents (n., plural) : small, round pastries filled with a savory mixture, typically of meat or fish, in a richly flavored sauce.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.6*/5, based on 11,364 ratings and 3,607 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.17*/5, based on 490,956 ratings and 26,644 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “Young man,” he said, “understand this: there are two Londons.  There’s London Above —that’s where you lived—and then there’s London Below—the Underside—inhabited by the people who fell through the cracks in the world.  Now you’re one of them.  Good night.”  (pg. 127)

 

    “We were looking for you,” said Richard.

    “And now you’ve found me,” croaked the marquis, drily.

    “We were expecting to see you at the market.”

    “Yes.  Well.  Some people thought I was dead.  I was forced to keep a low profile.”

    “Why . . . why did some people think you were dead?”

    The marquis looked at Richard with eyes that had seen too much and gone too far.  “Because they killed me,” he said.  (pg. 295)

 

“’Nice’ in a bodyguard,” lectured the marquis, “is about as useful as the ability to regurgitate whole lobsters.”  (pg. 118)

    As with any Neil Gaiman novel, trying to find things to grouse about in Neverwhere is a challenge.

 

    The cussing is light – just nine instances in the first 30% - which once again reinforces my maxim of “the more skilled the author, the less cusswords are needed for effect."

 

    Spending half the book on worldbuilding is probably not to everyone’s literary tastes, and that includes mine.  But if anyone can pull it off, it’s Neil Gaiman.  That’s all the quibbles I can come up with.

 

    I enjoyed Neverwhere but I wouldn’t call it Neil Gaiman’s best effort.  That’s reserved for American Gods (2001), Anansi Boys (2005), and The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013).  It isn’t that Neverwhere is bad, it’s that those other three books are just so good.  Want a second opinion?  Wikipedia notes that China Miéville, one of my favorite present-day novelists, cites Neverwhere as one of the major influences for his stellar book, Un Lun Dun.

 

    8 Stars.  Neil Gaiman is currently involved in a major Graphic Novel series titled Sandman.  To date, there are nine books in the series.  I have the first one on my Kindle, and Santa brought me Books 2 and 3 for Christmas last week.  I think I'll begin reading them very soon.

Proven Guilty - Jim Butcher

   2006; 547 pages.  Book 8 (out of 17) in the “Dresden Files” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres: Urban Fantasy; Paranormal Thriller.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

    Harry Dresden is certainly not the most popular member of the White Council of wizards.  He the newest Warden of the group, seems to have an attitude against blindly trusting the decisions of his peers, and is positively disrespectful of the senior council.

 

    But he also happens to be a private investigator by trade, and that always comes in handy, particularly when it comes to keeping tabs on the White Council’s deadly enemies, the vampires of the Red Court.

 

    For instance, right now a sudden spike in Black Magic has been detected in Harry’s hometown of Chicago.  That’s a capital offense with the punishment, decapitation, usually carried out at the first opportunity.  The White Council thinks it would be convenient if Harry could determine who the practicing black mage is.

 

    And while he’s at it, could he also investigate why the Faeries haven’t fought back against those nasty Red Court vampires who recently trespassed into the Faerie kingdom?  Such an infraction is usually met with instant and forceful retaliation, yet for some reason the Faeries seem to be uncharacteristically forgiving.  The White Council’s war against the Red Court is going badly, and it would be nice to have the Faeries as an ally.

 

    So dust off your duster and hit the streets of Chicago, Harry.  See what you can discover.  And you'd better hope that whoever is casting all that black magic juju isn’t some acquaintance of yours.  That would likely be the straw that breaks the White Council’s back when it comes to tolerating your uppity attitude.

 

What’s To Like...

    Proven Guilty is the eighth entry in Jim Butcher’s 17-volume paranormal urban fantasy series “The Dresden Files”.  It’s action-packed and fast-paced, and includes an extended foray into the Faerie parallel realm of Nevernever, which I always enjoy.

 

    The two tasks given to Harry, and the complications that arise therefrom, are not exactly epic in scope, but that’s okay.  The focus here is more on his relationships with Michael, a devout Knight of the Cross, Michael’s wife and daughter (Chastity and Molly), and Harry’s Chicago PD best bud, Lieutenant Karrin Murphy.  It was fun to see each of these characters get fleshed out, and I suspect it’s a sign that the Carpenter family will be playing a greater part in the next few books in the series.

 

    There’s a bunch of new magical critters to meet and be scared to death by, among which are Phobophages, Janns, Scarecrows, Ogres, and Fetches.  It might come as a surprise that of that beastly bunch, the Scarecrows are the most lethal.  My favorite supporting character, Bob the Skull, is back but doesn’t get a lot of ink, but Harry’s dog, Mouse, does, and both Harry and the reader begin to get the impression that Mouse is no ordinary canine.

 

    As always, the story is told in the first-person POV (Harry’s).  The chapters are short-to-moderate in length, 47 of them encompassing 547 pages.  There’s also a quite a bit of cussing, but that's the norm for a gritty urban fantasy.

 

    Everything builds to a climactic and prolonged magical battle.  Our heroes’ plight looks hopeless, but they accomplish their basic mission and flee to fight another day.  Proven Guilty is a standalone story, as well as part of a series.  I definitely recommend reading this series in order.  Harry makes a lot of references to past episodes during this tale, many of which I’d forgotten all about.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.8/5 based on 1,888 ratings.

    Goodreads: 4.38/5 based on 108,848 ratings and 2,881 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    “You would be wise not to anger me, wizard.  You’re hardly in a position to make demands.”

    “If you were going to kill me, you’d have done it already.”

    Crane let out a rueful laugh.  “I suppose that’s true enough.  I was going to finish you and drop you in the lake, but imagine my surprise when I made some calls and it turns out that you’re …”

    “Infamous” I suggested.  “Tough?  A good dancer?”

    Crane showed me his teeth.  “Marketable.  For an insignificant young man, you’ve managed to irritate a great many people.”  (pg. 271)

 

    “What would happen?” Charity asked quietly.

    “We’d die,” I said.  “We’d be trapped in deep Faerie, near the strongholds of all kinds of trouble, with no way to escape but to try to find our way to the portions of Faerie that are near Earth.  The locals would eat us and spit out the bones before we got anywhere close to escape.”

    Thomas rolled his eyes and said, “This isn’t exactly helping me keep my mind off my fear, man.”

    “Shut up,” I told him.  “Or I’ll move to my second initiative and start telling you knock-knock jokes.”  (pg. 377)

 

“Wizards is the kway-zee-est people.”  (pg. 204 )

    I enjoyed Proven Guilty just as much as the earlier books in this series but I have to admit to finding the ending to be both weird and a bit disquieting.

 

    First of all, it’s a stutter-step ending.  The epic battle of good-vs-evil is over, the good guys make it home safely, yet there’s still a hundred pages left in the book.  I was left wondering what details still needed resolving.  On the plus side, there’s a trial which neatly ties into the book’s opening scene.  Things look bad for Harry and his charge, but impeccable timing saves the day, and Harry ends up with an apprentice.

 

    That's when the weirdness set in.

 

    Harry and Michael engage in a long dialogue about faith versus magic.  Neither changes his view because of this, but it was strange to see Jim Butcher getting just a tad bit preachy.

 

    Then comes an underage come-on scene.  Other Amazon and Goodreads reviewers have pointed out how awkward the whole thing is.  Yes, Harry responds appropriately, but still, it was a yucky touch to an otherwise captivating tale.

 

    Finally, Harry and his former mentor discuss several loose ends that weren’t tied up in the book, including the possibility that there is an unknown “puppet master” who’s manipulating all the strife between the good guys and the baddies.  Is this a teaser for the next book or a recap of just how many details weren’t addressed in this one?

 

    Nevertheless, let’s be clear.  For the first 500 pages, Proven Guilty kept me thoroughly enamored with its tale of the paranormal.  Jim Butcher is an excellent writer and I see no hint of him “just mailing it in”.  The final fifty pages do get a little weird, but that doesn’t ruin the fascinating story he’s laid down up to that point.  I’ll no doubt be reading the next book, White Night, in the near future.

 

    8 Stars.  One last thing.  I liked the mention of a Barnes & Noble bookstore.  Local places to buy books, both new and used, are dying out (where have you gone, Border’s Books?), which is a shame.  Along with libraries, they constitute some of my favorite places to hang out.  It’s nice to see them getting a nod.

Grumpy Old Wizards - John O'Riley

   2013; 350 pages.  Book 1 (out of 7) in the “Grumpy Old Wizards” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Paranormal and Urban Fantasy.  Overall Rating : 4*/10.

 

    It isn’t easy being a Category Six Wizard.  The world loves and hates your powers, both at the same time.

 

    On one hand, your magical affinity for recent thoughts and residual strands of spells makes you a valuable tool for detectives at a crime scene.  On the other hand, ordinary people fear your otherworldly abilities, so they force you to wear a ring which acts kind of like a house-arrest anklet: if you start to radiate too much magical energy, it knocks you out.

 

    That’s the situation 84-year-old Josephine O’Connor finds herself in.  She’s on call as a consultant to the local Siesta Key (Florida) police department.  They use her services a lot, but except for her 28-year-old grandson and detective Jake, nobody else on the force is comfortable having her around.

 

    Maybe it’s her looks.  One advantage of being a Category Six Wizard is that you age very slowly.  Josephine looks like a 30-year-old.  Or maybe they’re scared of her ability to perform telekinesis.  I’d would be too if I knew someone could pick me up and move me around without physically touching me.

 

    Well, everybody better kiss and make up, because there’s a serial killer loose in Siesta Key, and his magic appears to be every bit as powerful as Josephine’s, if not stronger.  If she can’t overcome his spells and bring him in, who can?

 

What’s To Like...

    I liked the backstory premise in Grumpy Old Wizards – that some years back something called “the Disaster” happened, releasing a bunch of psychometric energy which imbued some, but not all, humans with varying degrees of wizardly powers.  Those powers are rated in categories  ranging from one to six, with six being the highest.  Any wizard can get a temporary bump in their power level, a “fix” if you will, by tapping into something called a power vortex, but this is against the law, as it scares the "normal", magic-less humans.

 

    There are only three power vortexes in the United States.  Two of them are in Sarasota, Florida and Seattle, Washington, convenient placements for the book's storyline.  But the third location – Sedona, Arizona -  made me chuckle, since I live in Arizona.  Sedona really is claimed by New Agers to be a mystic power mecca, with lots of psychic festivals held there throughout the year.

 

    There is no gender bias in John O’Riley’s wizard system – they can be male or female and have equal power potential.  The magic in the story is introduced immediately: Josephine is summoned to a murder-by-spellcasting crime scene to lend a psychic hand in the investigation.  Things quickly get deadly between the killer and Josephine, and she's also hampered by a growing addiction to the power vortex along with the threat of incarceration if the police become aware of her “feedings”.

 

    The ending is so-so.  The evil wizard is revealed, and the expected spellcasting duel ensues.  There aren’t really any twists to the final battle, and I felt the outcome was kind of arbitrary.  I found the book’s title to be quite clever and “catchy”, but if it had any tie-in to the story, I missed it.

 

    There are 21 chapters covering 350 pages, including an neat epilogue which isn't listed in the Table of Contents.  The story ends at 91% Kindle, with a bunch of extras in the last 9% including an "Author’s Note" and a sneak peek at the next book in the series, Corruption.  The book comes pretty close to being a "cozy"; I counted only 5 cusswords in the first quarter of the e-book; plus one instance of brief nudity later on that would hardly qualify as R-rated.

 

Kindle Details…

    Right now, Grumpy Old Wizards sells for $2.99 at Amazon.  The other six books in the series go for $3.99 apiece.  John O’Riley offers another half dozen or so books for your Kindle, all priced in the $3.94-$3.99 range.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 3.5*/5, based on 504 ratings.

    Goodreads: 3.30*/5, based on 1,397 ratings and 198 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “I enjoyed your visit to the crime scene this morning.  Did you do anything else interesting today?”

    “I ran into Spot while grocery shopping,” Josephine told him.

    “What happened?”  Jake’s brown eyes twinkled with anticipation and amusement.

    “I made his pants fall down.”  (loc. 158)

 

    “Robert and I have an understanding.  We’ve decided not to antagonize each other anymore,” Josephine said.

    “Really?” Alice said.  “I’m surprised to hear that.  You sounded like you weren’t going to take him up on his offer of a truce the last time you talked about him.”

    “My life is too complicated without making new enemies.  I have a serial killer to catch and an enforcer breathing down my neck,” Josephine said.  “I’d like to kick Morgan’s ass and shove him down a flight of stairs.”

    “You’re awful violent today,” Alice teased.  “I think you need to drink less coffee.”  (loc. 2344)

 

 

“I don’t think I like my subconscious very much.”  (loc. 1757)

    Unfortunately, as many other reviewers at Amazon and Goodreads have noted (leading to the low ratings listed above), Grumpy Old Wizards has some significant weaknesses.

 

    In brief, the writing is weak, especially the dialogue portions.  The showing/telling issues are quite distracting.  The storytelling meanders.  The plotline starts out with a serial killer murders investigation, but rapidly get bogged down in the inventing and casting of all sorts of spells.  Worst of all, the characters, whether they be good, bad, or secondary, are simply boring.  If you compare, say, this book’s characters of Josephine, Helen, Alice, and Detective Morgan with Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum, Lula, Grandma Mazur, and Detective Joe Morelli, the contrast is striking.

 

    I have to wonder how much time was spent on polishing the manuscript, and whether any beta readers, editors, and/or proofreaders were used in the writing of Grumpy Old Wizards.  If so, their collective job performance leaves a lot to be desired.  Don’t take my word for all these gripes; go read the Amazon and Goodreads reviews for yourself.

 

    4 Stars.  Grumpy Old Wizards has the potential to be a fascinating Urban Fantasy novel, but is in need of some serious polishing and revising, perhaps with even a ghostwriter/editor brought in.  It’s possible the writing improves as the series progresses, but I doubt many readers will take the gamble.

Dead Beat - Jim Butcher

   2005; 513 pages.  Book 7 (out of 15) of the “Dresden Files” series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Urban Fantasy; Humorous Fantasy; Urban Mystery.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

    Halloween is just three days away, and in Chicago, Harry Dresden’s stomping ground, just about everyone’s excited.

    For most Chicagoans, it’s time to stock up on candy, buy or make some costumes for the kids, and get ready for a night of trick-or-treating.  For a few, with a New Age-y bent, it means preparing to celebrate a sacred event, Samhain.  Harry Dresden, however, is filled with a sense of foreboding.

    Because, as Chicago’s resident (and only) practicing wizard, Halloween is the time of year when the barriers between our “real” world and the spirit world (known as the “Nevernever”) are at their weakest.  That means a sharp increase in otherworldly creatures, including demons and faeries, crossing over from the other side to our neck of the multiverse.

    This year, that includes a small band of necromancers, who have their own agenda for this Halloween.  They are up to some sort of deviltry, Harry isn’t sure exactly what, and they need a human to do their bidding: to find and bring to them something called the “Word of Kemmler”.  No later than Halloween night.

    Someone like Harry Dresden.  Who has just been blackmailed by one of the necromancers into taking this assignment.  If he doesn't do it, incriminating photos will get sent to the wrong people.

    Three days is an incredibly short time to do the job.  Especially since Harry has no idea what the Word of Kemmler is, let alone where to find it.

What’s To Like...

    Dead Beat is my seventh book in Jim Butcher’s fantastic ”Dresden Files” series, which means I’m about halfway through it.  There are lots of characters to keep track of, some new, some recurring.  Bob the Skull is back, and he’s one of my favorites.  So is Mouse, who I gather is recurring but who I’ve apparently forgot.  Sue is new, but here’s hoping she’ll get called on again.  Ditto for Waldo Butters, who’s my kind of hero.

    This is vintage Jim Butcher – the snarky wit starts immediately (roommate issues), and the action kicks in shortly thereafter.  As expected, there’s lots of magic involved and a slew of baddies to keep Harry and friends in peril up to their ears.

    If critters are your cup of tea, you’ll love Dead Beat.  I remember faeries, vampires, werewolves, and fallen angels (now demons) from before, along with maybe ghouls, zombies, specters, and an incubus or two.  Now we have necromancers, ectomancers (say what?), Ninja ghouls, a Renfield, corpsetakers, and a reptile added to the menagerie.

    I enjoyed learning about anthropomancy (huh?), and the Vader syndrome, and got a chuckle out of a bad case of “ergot poisoning”.  I liked the literary nods given to Fahrenheit 451 and Watchers, the latter being my favorite Dean Koontz book.

    Interwoven amongst all the mayhem was an interesting bit of situational ethics for Harry to ponder:  Do the ends (saving lots of lives) justify the means (using a kind of magic he’s sworn never to dabble in)?  I appreciated that the author wasn’t afraid to let Harry resolve that question.

    Exciting endings are a Jim Butcher specialty, and he comes through yet again with this one.  It’s both twisty and tension-filled.  A couple plot threads remain open, those involving Cowl and Kumori, the Erlking, and Harry’s mangled hand.  I’m sure all will get addressed down the line somewhere.

Kewlest New Word...

Tulwar (n.) : a curved saber or scimitar used in the Orient and northern India.

Excerpts...

    “Your timing is improbable.”

    He sounded amused.  “In what way?”

    “Coming to my rescue just as someone was about to punch my ticket.  You must admit, Marcone, that it smells like a setup.”

    “Even I occasionally enjoy good fortune,” he replied.

    I shook my head.  “I called you less than an hour ago.  If it wasn’t a setup, then how did you find me?”

    “He didn’t,” said Gard.  “I did.”  She looked over her shoulder at Marcone and frowned.  “This is a mistake.  It was his fate to die in that alley.”

    “What is the point of having free will if one cannot occasionally spit in the eye of destiny?” Marcone asked.  (pg. 209)

   “I hear some crazy things.”

    “Like what?” I asked.

    He shook his head.  “That terrorists blew up the power plant.  Or maybe set off some kind of nuke.  How would we know?”

    “I think someone might have noticed a nuclear explosion,” I said.

    “Oh, sure,” he said.  “But hell, maybe somebody did.  Practically no phones, radio is damned near useless.  How would we know?”

    “I dunno.  The big boom?  The vaporized city?”

    The vendor snorted.  (pg. 341)

“Life is a journey.  Time is a river.  The door is a jar.”  (pg. 179)

    The nitpicking is minor, and similar to what I listed in my previous Dresden Files review (shown here).  The title didn’t seem to have any tie-in to the book, but that’s not important.  Michael's MIA, and Murphy was a late-show, but I'm sure both will be back, and there were lots of other people and creatures to keep my interest.

    There seemed a bit more musing and explaining than usual, but I suspect those give vital insight into Harry’s mindset for anyone who isn’t reading the series in order.  A case could be made that the plotlines in these books are formulaic.  For instance, I’ve noticed that if there’s an aged White Wizard in the storyline, his chances of surviving the tale are pretty slim.

    And hey, even if it is formulaic, I like Butcher’s formula.

    9 Stars.  The Amazon and Goodreads overall ratings for this book are 4.7/5 and 4.43/5 respectively.  Those are impressive rankings for both sites, but IMHO completely deserved.  I had high expectations for Dead Beat, and it fully lived up to them.