Llewellyn, 2001

ISBN: 9780738700502

Available: New and used

This is a New Agey manual on the fantasy creatures we know and love. How to find them, identify them, protect yourself against them, run a basic investigation, as well as a hodgepodge of history and cultural takes can all be found in this book. However, it has a tone that’s bitterly anti-science (citing the Santa Claus defense, “so many people believe it, how could it not be true” as proof of these creatures existence) liberally redefines terms, and cherry picks data and history to suit the author’s arguments that these creatures still exist, as the author defines them, and it’s close minded to think otherwise.

The author contradicts himself on several occasions and his facts absolutely must be taken with a cup or so of salt. But each section (vampires, werewolves, ghosts, demons, angels, fae, mermaids, dragons and spirits) is also filled with clear historical research, as well as including non-Western folklore. Primarily suited for heavily used New Age or occult collections Monsters is a reminder of just how little we understand about nature, the past, and the world around us.

Downside book #3

I was given this book to review.

Spoiler Warning: This review contains spoilers for the previous books.

Stacia Kane, and her literary creation, Chess Putam have some serious balls. In the Downside books Chess is a Debunker for the Church, an absolute ruler over the world after a tragedy that involved all the ghost in the world rising up and massacring the living. Since Haunted Week the Church has taken over because they are the only ones who can guarantee the common person safety from more ghostly uprisings. Ghosts are the only paranormal creature in these books, but Kane proves that, with loose interpretation, that doesn’t have to limit the scope of the world.

Chess, the emotionally battered, drug addicted heroine, has absolute faith in two things, the Church, and Terrible, an enforcer for her dealer who hates her since he discovered she was sleeping with Lex, a rival from another drug family who would be happy to see Terrible dead. Even Chess’ faith in the Church is about to be tested when a member of The Black Squad, the Church’s elite investigation group, offers her a job on the condition that she undergo a terrifying magical binding.

It turns out an evil magical sect, the Lamaru, are back, slaughtering people and leaving their bits on the streets in Chess’ own neighborhood. In fact the Lamaru are neck deep in a plot to overthrow the church, a plot Chess must stop, despite Terrible hating her, Lauren (the Black Squad member she’s working with) ignoring her every lead and the Lamaru wanting Chess very very dead.

The Downside series so far has given readers two solid, fast paced, intrigue-filled tales in Kane’s wicked, vivid new urban fantasy world. But there’s an added effect for loyal readers–the twist of Chess being an unrepentant drug user. As a reader you know she’s going to hit rock bottom. You know she can’t continue at the pace she’s going. Someday Chess is going to crash land in a spectacular, tragic emotional hurricane, and by book three instead of watching it like a train wreck readers will be nervously wondering who will survive in the end.

It’s a very different kind of tension, an uncomfortable, tense fear, dazzling in its darkness and emotionally stunning. Kane is forging a bold new way through modern urban fantasy, and what you hear said in other stories is true in a whole new way here–all you can do is hold on, and wait to see who remains at the end.

Reviewed for MonsterLibrarian.com

Ace, 2009

ISBN: 978-0441018130

Available: mass market and digital

Deadtown depicts a world where parahumans have no civil rights and are forced to live in one area of town, to the point where they have to have permits to leave that area of town. The lead character is Victory Vaughn, the latest in a recent line of Welsh true shape shifters, and a demon hunter. Her kind-of-boyfriend is the lead civil rights attorney for Paranormal Americas, and a werewolf. When one of her clients is found dead Vicky realizes that the Hellion that killed her father is now hunting her. She has to balance her personal life with dealing with a scientist who wants to make her a lab rat, and protecting a client who by all rights she should want dead. Somehow, she must also find it in herself to stop the demon she fears.

Deadtown has all the makings of a good urban fantasy, but falls flat in the execution. Most of the characters are either blah, or completely annoying. Holzner has created an interesting world with her oppressive society, but the plot doesn’t revolve around making things better. The characters consistently make choices that are stupid, dangerous and even violent. It’s hard to connect with the people in this tale, making it a lackluster example of urban fantasy. Deadtown is not without its charms, so collections that service voracious paranormal readers—or those with no taste for the full-on erotic scenes in other books—will still have a place for Deadtown in their collections.

Contains: Violence, language

Del Rey, 2010
ISBN: 9780345522603
Available: New
Yet another literary mash up, Little Women and Werewolves is the classic tale of Jo, Beth, Meg and Amy, four girls trying to grow up, once rich, now poor, their father gone off to the Civil War and with werewolves running around. Unlike other mash ups there is no tongue-in-cheek take on the original, just a telling of the traditional tale with the occasional line, or scene, about werewolves crammed in. If someone spliced frames from a slasher flick into a high brow romance then peppered in some morals, you’d get the same effect.
Grand mimics Alcott’s style very well, even rounding the edges a bit. Readers who loved the original will likely enjoy this tale (particularly because Alcott also wrote gothic style novels, thus the set up of this being the “original” version of Little Women that was rewritten into what we know today is fitting). While it has a certain charm it also is unlikely to appeal to the contemporary audiences of most paranormal and horror books because of an overdose of generally repressive morals and a lack of plot. The book encompasses about six years in the girls’ lives, and a lot happens. Although the writing is often lovely, it seems as if just when the good stuff is about to get going, the narrative shies away for another lesson about being “a good little woman”. Overall, despite promising prose, I found myself disappointed. Those acquiring for public collections should be assured that there are better mash ups out there. However if the library’s patrons seem to have a taste for Little Women or the “new classics”, no doubt they’ll love this.
Contains: violence and some gore

The first original fiction offering is “Last Stand of the Ant Maker” by Paul Jessup, the tale of a highly focused man and an apocalypse. Surreal and succinctly charming, but also completely unexplained readers, will either get this story, or find it pretty, but be just as confused about things when it ends.

“City of Refuge” by Jerry Gordon follows. Scoffing at the idea that Apex doesn’t do zombies, this tale is evocative of Kim Paffenroth’s style, mixing the undead and religious, with no faith, however, in the benign nature of religion. It centers on a mind reader who can communicate with the Fallen, who has hopes of a future time where the Fallen and humans can live together rather than as enemies. “City of Refuge” is, if anything, too tight and self contained, like a bite of dark chocolate when one could do with a whole bar.

Catherynne M. Valente’s “The Days of Flaming Motorcycles” also begins with zombies, but also with a lighter tone. Don’t expect it to stay that way, though, as Valente takes readers on a dark voyage about the meaning of faith and the existential truth behind the apocalypse. Not your average zombie story, Valente’s story is as beautiful, unique and dark as the rest of the issue.

The June Issue opens with “Laika’s Dream” by Holly Hight.  A broken, scattered narrative about a professor, his daughter with Down’s Syndrome and a student determined to be a genius despite being diagnosed with schizophrenia, this tale appears to be about science and creation and, of course, death. But it’s really about several characters’ quests to be worthy people, not defined by their labels or the conventions of society around them. A very interesting read, indeed.

“Sol Alseep” by Naomi Libicki (also available as an audio story ) is an odd story. It takes place on a space ship, beginning with the rape of the title character, and becoming increasingly dreamy and surreal as it moves on. As with the first tale, there isn’t a traditional story, with a beginning middle and end here, but rather Libicki captures the sad, dissociative feeling that trauma inflicts on people, space travelers or not.

Jeff Carlson’s “Long Eyes” is a reprint, lead by another character suffering from an inability to fit in with her community. Genetically bred for one job, Clara now lives in a kind of symbiosis with a ship venturing into the far reaches of space looking for potentially habitable planets for expansion. What she finds on a barely habitable planet, however, surprises and saddens her. “Long Eyes” is an excellent match for the feel of the other tales.

Finally is a piece from the archives, “The Thing in the Refrigerator That Could Stop Time” by Matthew Kressel, where you’ll find neither far off planets nor space ships, but lots of personal darkness.

Apex is available to read for free online, on Smashwords.com for whatever you want to pay for it and for the Kindle for $.99. A worthy read, for SF and dark fiction lovers, and another way to support the pro markets of the genre field.