Various Thoughts

Embers is Laura Bickle’s debut novel. It may or may not be the first in a series. The novel takes place in modern Detroit and is fairly unique in having its investigative protagonist mainly be a firefighter instead of a cop. It reminds me a bit of Diana Rowland‘s Kara Gillian series in general outline; both have protagonists in law-enforcement who have hidden mystical abilities who have to suddenly deal with their mystical and mundane lives colliding. The only issue I had with it was the periodic brooding about spirituality and forgiveness.

Dying Bites and Death Blows are the first two books in D. D. Barant‘s Bloodhound Files series. Despite their campy vampire-foreshadowing names there isn’t much focus on vampires in them; besides the protagonist, who is just a regular human, most of focus is on the lycanthrope characters. Bites introduces a ludicrous premise in a surprisingly rational manner, while Blows sort-of undoes much of the credibility it worked to create. The first novel is fairly serious and does its best to keep things just this side of suspension of disbelief, the second rips most of that to shreds by importing a few elements from Vicki Pettersson’s Sign of the Zodiac series. Hopefully, the third book bears more of a resemblance to the first.

StarCraft: Speed of DarknessThis short novel, by Tracy Hickman, tells the story of a young man (Ardo) ripped from his home and forced into the ranks of the Confederacy Marines. The story takes place shortly after the Terran forces create the Zerg Beacons, and revolves around a Mission to recover one of them. It’s something of a personal journey, as everything...

Swallowing Darkness & LegacySwallowing Darkness is the most recent addition to Laurell K. Hamilton‘s Meredith Gentry series, and interestingly enough, sort of feels like the last. While her Anita Blake series had been getting bogged down in its new-found focus on the sex lives of its characters, this series has more or less always been focused on...

Tempted & ScorchedThe latest in P. C. and Kristin Cast’s House of Night series has completely turned me off from any continuations. I’m not quite sure if it was specific to this book, or had been present and ignored across the entire set, but it’s too focused on specific characterizations and not enough on...

Nightwalker & Night ChildNightwalker, by Jocelynn Drake, is a somewhat interesting addition to the Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance genres. It’s the first in a series whose main character is a six-hundred year old vampire (Mira) who, unlike all other vampires, has both control over and immunity to fire. The story begins with an encounter;  a hunter of mysterious...

Koukaku no RegiosI decided to watch this series on a whim after seeing some artwork related to it elsewhere. Surprisingly enough… it’s quite engaging. The storyline and universe are fairly ridiculous, making the characters the main draw. The main premise reminds me of Kaze no Stigma, while the various character designs are reminiscent of numerous other series....

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