Well, I managed to find a book more disappointing than Andrew Grant’s Even.  This book was a horrible mess.  Warning: this review contains a spoiler for the book!

Angel’s Advocate by Mary Stanton
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I rarely rate books as one star. Most books have enough to recommend them that, even if I didn’t care for them, they deserve at least a couple of stars. But the flaws in this book were so sufficient as to make finishing this a trial instead of an enjoyment.
I like the concept of this series - the idea of a celestial court, where a soul condemned can file and appeal or ask for a retrial. It’s a neat concept. And the fact that the main character, Brianna “Bree” Winston-Beufort, is a lawyer in the “temporal realm” as well means the potential for some interesting legal cases in the living world. Unfortunately, that potential isn’t fulfilled in this book. The living people Bree is working for are mostly uninteresting, and lack complexity. The case that she tries to build for her deceased client is poorly-fleshed out - lacking in details, it loses much of its appeal. Add that to the unnecessary complication of dealing with a dead spirit rising from the grave to harry her, and this book is a mess. It gets bogged down in too many details of the wrong kinds of things (why would we care that Bree salts the egg, separates out the bacon, and then eats the black olives from her salad?).

Another issue is that the author throws in details that can’t be correct. As a non-spoilery example: This book was published in 2009, and Bree is mentioned as being 29 years old. She goes to visit her family home, and goes up to her old room, which still contains some of her things. “Copies of her best-beloved childhood books were still there: Lad: A Dog; The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials trilogy; and a whole slew of Anne of Green Gables.” Philip Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass, third book in the Dark Materials trilogy, was published in 2000. When the main character would have been 20. Hard to call that a best-beloved book of childhood.

The other huge issue is a spoiler:
A very important plot point hinges on blood typing. Bree gets medical reports on three people, a couple and their child. The mother, Carrie-Alice, is noted as having type O- blood, and the father, Probert, is also noted as having type O-. The daughter, Lindsey, has type AB-. This is used as proof that the mother had an affair and that Lindsey isn’t Probert’s daughter. However, what this actually proves is that Lindsey is the child of neither Carrie-Alice nor Probert. A parent with type O blood can have a child with type A, type B, or type O, but never type AB. It’s medically impossible, and something that is taught in high-school Biology courses. If an author is going to make blood typing such an important factor in the climax of the book, then she needs to do her dang research!

So, for all of those reasons, I cannot recommend this book.

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Book number six this year, and it was a fast-paced, somewhat violent ride:

Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

You ever read one of those books that just grabs you by the throat and won’t let you go? It demands you to keep reading right up to the end? This is that kind of book. A fast-paced, irreverent book, full of violence, vengeance, and some really awesome carne asada.

James Stark is not a nice guy. He’s not the kind of character you can empathize with. But he’s fascinating, in a James Bond sort of way - not real, but some sort of idealization. But if James Bond is a hero, well, Stark is his twisted and dark reflection. He’s out for his own ends, and if he ends up doing some good, that’s absolutely irrelevant to him.

Plot-wise, the book moves at top speed, with barely enough room to take a breath. It may be close to four hundred pages long, but it feels a lot shorter. Still, nothing gets lost on the way - the plot holes are filled and the loose threads mostly tied up by the end.

If you’re not averse to a bit of violence in your urban fantasy, I highly recommend this book.

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This book was originally released with the title Rivers of London, but was changed to Midnight Riot when released in the US.  A really excellent read, here’s my review:

Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Urban fantasy with a dash of police procedural thrown in for spice, all against the backdrop of London. This novel is fast-paced, keeping both the main plot and the subplot moving along at a good clip. The characters are well fleshed out, with the impression that there is more going on that we can’t see - as it is with real people, these characters have histories, and lives that happened before we started reading (and that will continue after the story is over).

The world-building done here is somewhat minimal, simply because the London in which the story takes place is very much like the London that we know. And any new things are handled through the eyes of our narrator, Peter Grant, who has just been introduced to the idea of magic, and ghosts, and whatnot.

One thing I will say about the storytelling style - it is very descriptive. By this I mean that Peter will get distracted by something, and start trying to study it in detail. Because this is a first-person narrative, that carries over into the storytelling. I personally enjoyed this aspect, but I know it is not everyone’s cup of tea, so caveat lector.

All in all, a fast-paced fun book that has me looking forward to the sequel.

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My biggest disappointment in reading thus far: Even, by Andrew Grant.

Even by Andrew Grant
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Have you ever read a book that was going well, and you plan to recommend to others, until you read the last five pages? This is that kind of book.
Even starts slow, but once it picks up steam, it’s a somewhat enjoyable book (at least until an incredibly unsatisfying ending). it has a few rough patches, story-wise. There were parts of the plot that I figured out well before all of the characters in the book, which makes me, personally, feel frustrated. But I wouldn’t have considered it a bad book until a completely unsatisfactory ending was tacked on, as if Mr. Grant couldn’t figure out how to end the book and so just slapped on “The End” without bothering to do things like tie up his dangling plot points. So, all in all, I can’t really recommend this book.

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Grave Witch by Kalayna Price
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a very enjoyable start to a series. It is a fully self-contained story - all of the important plot points are wrapped up by the last page. The plot moves along well, and the world-building needed when introducing a new series was handled in a very natualistic manner.

Alex Craft is a strong female character. She’s not terribly feminine, but she’s also not a woman in name only. She’s also a very human character, making occasionally foolish choices or mistakes, but ones that the reader can relate to. Further, while she is a powerful figure, her power has clearly-defined limits, and has some important drawbacks. This makes the overall world more balanced, and keeps the character of Alex interesting.

The plot revolves around a police case involving some ritual murders. Because the story is told from a first-person perspective, it is difficult for the reader to get too far ahead of the protagonist in determining who the culprit is. I found this to be a positive - third-person narratives too often point out clues that the protagonist should not have missed, and thus give less enjoyment as I wait for the characters to catch up with me.

One other important thing Ms. Price does well is setting up the next part of her series. As I mentioned before, the story of Grave Witch is fully self-contained. There’s no lingering plot holes to be filled by further stories. But there are consequences from this story that will clearly carry over into future stories in the series. So, there is just enough to know that Alex Craft isn’t nearly ready to have a “happily ever after”, without preventing the actual story wrap-up.

So, overall, a 5 out of 5 for world-building, character development, and plot execution.

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And the second book for the year is Magic Bites, by Ilona Andrews.

Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

An enjoyable book, and a good introduction to a series. However, there were a few loose ends that weren’t tied up by the end of the story, instead left dangling to presumably be dealt with in future storylines. I personally prefer my stories a bit more self-contained.

One other complaint is about the main character, Kate Daniels. She has occasional moments of what seem to be hormone-induced stupidity. I found that to be annoying in an otherwise strong female character.

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Okay, I’m finally getting some reading done.  My first book of the year is Married with Zombies, by Jesse Peterson.

Married With Zombies by Jesse Petersen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“The couple who slays together, stays together.” Sarah and David have decided on a rather unique form of marriage counseling - they’re caught in the middle of a zombie plague, so they have to learn to put aside their problems and deal with the much bigger issue of staying alive.

Overall, the book was good, but far from great. As the first book in the series, we spend a good amount of time getting to know our protagonists and our setting. Sarah and David are a couple going through marriage difficulties. They’re very human, by which I mean somewhat self-centered and prone to getting hung up on what should be unimportant when dealing with a zombie plague. I actually find this to be to the book’s credit. Too often in zombie fiction we see caricatures, rather than characters. However, there are times when this led to me yelling at the book, because I thought they were being particularly stupid.

(WARNING: spoiler)[For example, allowing Amanda to go off on her own was stupid. That was then compounded by ignoring her squirelly behaviour upon her return. And, while the reluctance to shoot her was understandable, it wasn’t like they were best friends.

Worse, they didn’t learn from this mistake. Allowing Conrad in to the house, despite him acting weird, and then leaving him alone with Gina! Sarah and David had promised each other they would learn from their mistakes, and this was an obvious lesson they missed. (end spoiler)]

This book has a tagline of “A romantic comedy with…Braaains!” I honestly didn’t find it to be that much of a romantic comedy. Sure, it was funny in parts, but I guess I expected a little more romance. Not including it wasn’t a problem, per se, but it changed my expectations of the book.

Structurally, the story did get somewhat repetitive, which is a downfall of much of zombie fiction. Because the main plot of the book involves getting from point A to point B during a massive zombie plague, the main conflict of almost every chapter revolves around meeting some variety of zombie(s) while trying to get what is needed to get to their destination.

Another issue is that the book is told in the first person in the past tense. That means that we readers know going in that our two main protagonists are going to make it to the end of the book. And because of the first-person perspective, and Sarah’s very human way of telling the story, the secondary characters are often unlikable, because Sarah has a habit of pointing out all of the character flaws of that person to the reader. So, if anything happens, we often don’t care all that much.

So, to sum up - if you like zombie fiction, and enjoyed comedic zombie movies like Zombieland or Shaun of the Dead, you may want to give this book a try. It’s a quick read, and worth some laughs. But if you want actual plot, or something that will stimulate your brain, you may want to look elsewhere.

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Well, it’s the beginning of the year again, and once again I’m going to try to Make a Dint in Mt. To-Be-Read, with a goal of 30 books this year.  Hopefully, it goes better than last year.

Once again, participating in the What’s in a Name challenge.  This year’s title challenges are:

1. A book with up or down (or equivalent) in the title - Down Among the Dead Men, by Simon R. Green, Falling Upward, by Kassandra Sims, or Second Sunrise, by David and Aimée Thurlo
2. A book with something you’d find in your kitchen in the title - Strawberry Shortcake Murder, by Joanne Fluke, Drinking Midnight Wine, by Simon R. Green, or Rosemary and Rue, by Seanan McGuire
3. A book with a party or celebration in the title - My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding, edited by P. N. Elrod, Weddings from Hell, by Maggie Shayne, et al, or Masques, by Patricia Briggs
4. A book with fire (or equivalent) in the title - Flesh and Fire, by Laura Anne Gilman, Blaze: The Forensics of Fire, by Nicholas Faith, or Child of Fire, by Harry Connolly
5. A book with an emotion in the title - Black Blade Blues, by J. A. Pitts, What Angels Fear, by C. S. Harris, or 愛のくさび (Ai No Kusabi) Vol 1: Stranger, by Reiko Yoshihara
6. A book with lost or found (or equivalent) in the title - The Case of the Missing Books, by Ian Sansom, Lost in the Labyrinth, by Patrica Kindl, or Magic Lost, Trouble Found, by Lisa Shearin

All of this to start on January 1st

Next, a young adult novel by fantasy author Katherine Kurtz.

St. Patrick’s Gargoyle by Katherine Kurtz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I suppose it says something about my enthusiasm for this book when I say it sat on my shelves for about three years before I read it. It wasn’t un-put-down-able, but the plot moved along well, and it had an interesting concept. Overall, four out of five stars.

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