The Blood Books: Vol. 1 by Tanya Huff

Date Published: 2006, DAW Books.
ISBN: 075 - 640 - 387 - 1
# of Pages: 554

I didn't think I liked mysteries or crime/detective novels, but this may have converted me (though, then again, maybe it's the supernatural fantasy stuff I like so much). This book is actually two books -- the first in a series by Huff that follows a policewoman-turned-private-detective due to a degenerative eye condition who finds herself involved in supernatural cases after unwittingly teaming up with 400+ year-old vampire Henry Fitzroy, a historical romance novelist and the bastard son of Henry VIII. The first book follows the investigation of the conjuring of a demon. The second follows some trouble with a local (friendly) werewolf pack that is being systematically hunted down.

The writing is fast-paced and engaging and the characters are all very likeable (even the un-like-able ones) which is a sign of decent quality writing to me. After reading this I acquired (hrrm-umph) the Canadian TV series that was based on these books and found a lot of very interesting differences and similarities. I enjoyed that Henry was a romance novelist while reading this book. I thought that it added some dimension and seemed to be a pretty understandable profession for an immortal vampire to take up when he finds that he isn't really able to do things like "be outside during the day" or "associate with other people", and really it was just very cute. In the TV series they change this profession to graphic novelist which just made me kind of nauseous. I got the impression that romance novelist just wasn't masculine enough. They also very explicitly played down on Henry's very transparent bisexuality in the novels which I ALSO thought was very interesting and enjoyed very much.

I liked that the focus shifts to multiple supernatural creatures and that there seems to be a lot of different directions these stories can take. I think that this is fairly standard procedure for novels (supernatural crime solving novels seem to be a genre in and of themselves these days...) like this but I imagine for its time (1991) it was quite progressive. It has the usual trappings of poor plot development and predictable sequences of events that I would expect, but for what it is I think it is pretty decent.

Dingo by Charles de Lint

Date Published: 2008, Firebird.
ISBN: 014 - 240 - 816 - 6
# of Pages: 224

I acquired this book at a bookstore in the mall that has since closed down when I was roughly 17. I read it immediately then and put it aside for a few years until last summer when I read through it again to my boyfriend. We both enjoyed it for its magical qualities but took some issues with it that, while they didn't completely detract from the enjoyability of the writing, made me a bit hesitant to read more work by this author (though I read and enjoyed Wolf Moon some years back and have been considering revisiting it for some time...)

The story is fairly simple. A young teen in a coastal town meets a girl who has moved there from Australia. Together, he and his rival (and a town bully) learn that this girl has a twin sister and that both girls are *actually* dingoes that have the ability to turn into humans. They very quickly rely on them to get them out of trouble with another dingo named Warrigal who has threatened to marry them against their will in order to obtain power that they hold.

I thought that the first-person narrative sounded a little forced and I was really disappointed about the excess romance, but I guess that is actually fairly typical for YA fantasy. I loved the world that de Lint created and thought that was fairly redeeming but I was very back and forth about the characters. I ended up liking Johnny the most (the main character Miguel's rival). The entire time I couldn't decide if my issue was that I was at the point where I already had trouble relating to teenagers and teenage-concerns or if the author was actually just very bad at relating those concerns in a believable way. I often felt pulled out of the story because I simply didn't read the narrator's voice as a teenage-voice.

In any case, my other major issue was the very uncomfortable way that de Lint warped and used Aboriginal mythology in his story which did not even attempt to be accurate and seemed a lot like cultural misappropriation. I would have enjoyed the mythology he created a lot more if he had just made it from scratch rather than very obviously try to draw on already extant mythology and customs. It just struck me as rather disrespectful.

All-in-all it was an interesting read for several reasons but certainly wasn't anything spectacular and had some major issues that I think needed some double-checking and polishing prior to being published. I haven't heard very much about it since it was published and so I don't think it really sustained any long-term interest and I can't say I'm very surprised.

Thirteen Orphans by Jane Lindskold

Date Published: 2008, Tor Fantasy.
ISBN: 978-0-7653-5621-5
# of Pages: 500

It had been a while since I really involved myself in a silly fantasy novel, and I had seen this book on the shelves of a few bookstores and had been attracted to the cover. When I was at a small local bookstore not too long ago I saw it again and just had to finally buy it. I'm really glad I did, because it was an altogether enjoyable reading experience.

The story mainly follows Brenda, a young adult who learns that her father is a member of the "thirteen orphans", a group of people exiled from a mystical land that is semi-analogous to the China in our world. Each of the thirteen orphans represents one of the Chinese zodiac signs -- plus a thirteenth, the cat. The cat is the descendent of an old emperor that was exiled with the thirteen orphans. Since then, the zodiac heritage and the magical powers that go along with each have been passed down to one person from each subsequent generation. Brenda's father is the Rat.

Quickly, Brenda, her father and the Tiger, an older woman who was once a child actor, realize that someone from this mystical land has come to try to steal the memories connected with each orphan and go on a complicated journey to try to retrieve the memories that have already been stolen and prevent any more from being taken, including their own.

There was a lot of exposition in this novel that I felt could have been done away with, as much of it centered on knowledge of mah jong that was not really necessary to the plot and was actually very difficult to trudge through if you had no experience with mah jong. The magic would have worked out well enough logically without explaining what each set of tiles does, etc. Regardless, using the mah jong as magic was a really original and interesting decision.

I enjoyed reading about how each character fulfilled certain aspects of their zodiac animal and it was fun to see Brenda progress and grow comfortable in her role as the heir of the Rat. The ending was actually a bit abrupt, and I was surprised at how few pages it took to resolve some very major, key plot points, but there is a second (and I believe third?) book thus far in the series and I am eager to get my hands on them. Some issues may have been resolved a bit quicker and more easily than I would have suspected, but some more complicated issues arise towards the end of the novel that make closing the back cover a bit agonizing.

The writing is so-so, I've never read anything by Lindskold before and it seems to be pretty standard mid-quality fantasy. I already mentioned the issues with exposition, but some of the sentences are choppy and I found the perspective switching in third person a bit awkward and occasionally found myself unsure about whose thoughts were being portrayed, especially when a change of setting or time was not clear.

In short, I would recommend this book to someone who already likes fantasy and is willing to put up with a bit of unnecessary description in order to get to some fun and original ideas and adventure.