The Rook, by Daniel O'Malley

The Rook, by Daniel O'Malley.  Little, Brown and Company, 2012.  978-0-316-19327-6.

... in which Myfanwy Thomas awakes with no memory of who she is, and must somehow return to her life as a high-ranking official in a secret government agency that protects the world from supernatural enemies.

Myfanwy Thomas (pronounced miff-uh-ney) wakes up one night and finds herself surrounded by dead bodies wearing latex gloves, with no memory of who she is.  In her pocket, she finds a letter from her pre-amnesiac self, explaining that her name is Myfanwy Thomas and that she is being hunted by people who want to destroy her.  Following the clues from her pre-amnesiac self, Myfanwy Thomas gradually learns that she is a Rook for the Checquy, a top-secret British government agency with hundreds of agents, directed towards protecting the world from various supernatural threats.  Myfanwy's title of Rook places her in the very highest echelon of the Checquy, essentially making her a general in charge of all domestic supernatural problems.  Myfanwy has to continue to follow the clues to discover who she is and who is trying to kill her, while also preventing her dangerous colleagues at the Checquy from discovering her total amnesia, and while preventing a full-scale invasion of horrifying monsters attempting to take over Great Britain.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Lev Grossman’s The Magicians follows the story of Quentin Coldwater, a very intelligent but moody and often lonely teenager who happens to also be a magician. In the book’s early pages, Quentin quickly finds out that he can perform magic, passes an entrance exam for Brakebills School for Magic, and embarks on a journey to becoming a magician. (If this reminds you of a cultural phenomenon known as Harry Potter, well, I’ll get to that.) From there the story progresses quickly, following Quentin and his classmates through their adventures in learning magic and eventually transitioning into life in the “real world,” whatever that may mean for young magicians in New York. (And if that seems a little thin on summary, I’ll get to the book’s atypical plot structure eventually, too.)

Let’s pause for the inevitable Harry Potter comparisons. A modern fantasy novel, set at a school for young magicians? It’s hard not to see the similarities. Grossman himself even makes passing acknowledgments of this in the text; Quentin remarks on Hermione’s studying habits and bemoans that not all intelligent, would-be magicians are actually like her. Beyond these initial obvious similarities, however, the two works are fairly different. While the Harry Potter series is a gradual coming of age story, following Harry and his friends from childhood to a kind of young-adult maturity, The Magicians is more about the transition into adulthood and the inevitable struggles of growing up, figuring out what to do with life, and the stupid things done in that transitional phase. Essentially, it’s the difference between middle/high school and college/immediately post-college-- while the ages of those involved may not seem that far off, their experiences are radically different. (As an aside, as someone still mired in the latter of those stages, I found that this setting made the characters and their struggles appreciably relatable.) There’s a reason The Magicians has gained the reputation of being “Harry Potter for grown ups,” and while that characterization is overly simplistic, there is certainly some truth there.

Eye of the Tempest, by Nicole Peeler

Eye of the Tempest, by Nicole Peeler.  Orbit Books, 2011.  338 pp.  978-0-316-12808-7.

... in which Jane True, half-selkie, saves her friends and works to stop a major magical disaster.

This book is the fourth book in the Jane True series.  If this review seems early... that's because it is.  The book isn't supposed to be released until July 26, but the Borders near me put it on the shelves a week early.  For whatever reason, I seem to have reviewed book one, but not books two and three.  Jane, the daughter of a selkie mother and a human father, has managed to survive many dangerous events in the past three books.  At the end of book three, Jane learned of a widespread threat against the future of all magical halflings and humans.  Book four starts with her returning home after some very dangerous events, only to be attacked again on her home turf.  Jane and her friends (most notably, the barghest Anyan) hear news of an ancient powerful being asleep under her hometown of Rockabill, Maine.  Whoever manages to find and awaken this creature gets its power, and therefore a huge advantage in the coming magical war.  As events unfold, it becomes clear that this sleeping creature could destroy most of North America, and as Jane's friends are incapacitated one by one, it's up to Jane to fix the problem herself.

Kraken, by China Mieville

Kraken, by China Miéville.  Del Rey Books, 2010.  509 pp.  978-0-345-49750-5.

... in which a missing giant squid comes close to causing the end of the world.

For those of you not familiar with China Miéville, it's important to remember that this guy is basically known for writing weird fiction.  So if you don't have a decently high tolerance for weird fiction, this is probably not the author for you.

At its heart, Kraken is a story of faith.  The book opens with Billy Harrow, a curator at London's Natural History Museum, giving a tour of the museum's specimen rooms.  The most interesting specimen in the museum's collection is the body of a giant squid (kraken), preserved in a large glass tank.  When Billy brings the tour group into the squid room, however, the squid and its tank are missing, with no evidence to explain who took it or how they got it out without anyone noticing.  From this point on, Billy finds himself pulled into a conflict in a hidden underworld of London, an underworld involving magic, myths, cults and gods.  At the center of this conflict are four groups: the Church of the God Kraken, the followers of crime lord Grisamentum, the followers of the crime lord known as the Tattoo, and the Londonmancers.  For various reasons, each of these groups want to find the missing squid, because the kraken might have the powers of a god, and it might be the key to ending (or saving) the world, and everyone thinks that Billy is some kind of prophet for the kraken god..

Lonely Werewolf Girl, by Martin Millar

Lonely Werewolf Girl, by Martin Millar.  Soft Skull Press, 2007.  560 pp.  978-0-9796636-6-6.

… in which Kalix the werewolf girl finds herself at the center of a civil war among the werewolves of Scotland.

Lonely Werewolf Girl is the story of a clan of werewolves in Scotland and England.  The Thane, leader of the werewolf clan, has died, and there is now a war of succession taking place.  At the center of the conflict is 17 year old Kalix, the daughter and youngest child of the Thane and the cause of his death.  Banished from the ancestral family home in Scotland, Kalix now wanders the streets of London, fighting her crippling depression, drug addiction, and the people who want her dead.  Also central to the story are Kalix’s brothers, Sarapen and Markus, who are fighting each other for the leadership of the clan.  Kalix’s sister, Thrix, and various cousins all choose to stand with either Sarapen or Markus, but when it becomes clear that Kalix is the key to victory in the civil war, the battle start coming to London.

Hush, Hush, by Becca Fitzpatrick

Hush, Hush, by Becca Fitzpatrick.  Simon and Schuster, 2009.  400 pp.  978-1416989417.

... in which we have Twilight, but with angels instead of vampires.

The story in Hush, Hush revolves around Nora, a high school sophomore.  One day in biology, the seating arrangement gets changed and Nora ends up with a new biology partner.  The partner, a mysterious bad-boy named Patch, seems to know exactly how to get under Nora's skin and drive her crazy.  He also knows way too many details about her life.  After meeting Patch for the first time, Nora begins to run into him all over town, suggesting that he may be following her.  She also survives several near-death experiences, and begins to suspect that someone is trying to kill her.  When she does a little research into Patch and some of the other unusual people she's met since meeting him, she finds out that Patch is a fallen angel... an angel who fell to earth and lost their wings.  Despite all of the evidence suggesting that Patch is dangerous, Nora finds herself inexplicably attracted to him.  Nora ends up in a conflict between fallen angels and the Nephilim (offspring of humans and fallen angels), which could have life-threatening consequences for her.

Dead Reckoning, by Charlaine Harris

Dead Reckoning, by Charlaine Harris.  Ace Books, 2011.  325 pp.  978-0-441-02031-7.

...in which Sookie witnesses a bombing, gets pulled into vampire politics, and acquires an interesting fairy artifact.

Dead Reckoning, the most recent installment in Charlaine Harris' enormously popular Sookie Stackhouse series, is an improvement on the last few books in the series, but doesn't quite measure up to the earlier books.  The book opens with Sookie working her shift at Merlotte's bar, which is firebombed by a mysterious individual.  Sookie suspects that someone supernatural is behind the attack.  Meanwhile, at home, Sookie is working on cleaning out the attic of her 150 year old house, with the help of her two fairy cousins/roommates.  While cleaning out an old desk, Sookie finds a mysterious object that was given to her grandmother by her grandfather.  As Sookie digs deeper into the mysteries surrounding her fairy ancestry, she also has to fend off attacks on her life and cope with her secretive, distracted boyfriend, Eric, who's being pulled into a nasty political affair amongst the vampires.

Storm Front by Jim Butcher

I'm about ten years late reading this first novel of the Dresden Files. The Dresden Files is a paranormal detective story replete with Noir archetypes. Our hero, Harry Dresden, is a wizard for hire and private investigator.

Tempest Rising, by Nicole Peeler

Tempest Rising, by Nicole Peeler. Orbit, 2009. 368 pp. 978-0316056588.

... in which a half-human, half-selkie woman helps a vampire solve some grisly murders.

The plot of this book revolves around a young woman named Jane True. Jane lives in a tiny tourist town in coastal Maine, and because she is different than the other townspeople and has a troubled past, she is something of a social pariah. Her secret joy in life is to go swimming in the dead of night in the very turbulent, very cold ocean waters near her house. Over the course of the book, she discovers that her oddities are due to her mother actually being a selkie. If you've ever seen the movie The Secret of Roan Inish (a favorite of mine from childhood!), you'll recognize a little of the mythology here. She eventually discovers that there is an entire community of magical folk (vampires, gnomes, shape-shifters, etc) living side-by-side with humans. Eventually Jane gets caught up in an investigation into a series of murders, and teams up with a vampire to help him solve the crimes.

As far as urban fantasies go, this one is not especially unique (socially ostracized girl with mysterious past, handsome vampire, etc), but it's a fun (and fast!) read nonetheless. As far as vampire-craze books go, this one is more on the Sookie Stackhouse side, instead of the Twilight side. The characters aren't quite as clean as the characters in Twilight are, and the various mythological creatures have the potential to have more complicated histories than the creatures in Twilight.

The author is a professor of English and has an interest in ancient mythology, and that certainly comes through in the book. I enjoyed how the author made an effort to tie her characters in with ancient mythology, but to also add her own creative spin. I also liked that vampires didn't dominate the storyline, as I have long since grown tired of the Edward/Robert Pattinson craze sweeping the nation. Yes, the second most important character in the book is a vampire, but the main character is half-selkie, a somewhat lesser-known creature.

The plot of this book moved along fairly quickly, and it was very straightforward. It was an extremely predictable novel, but that is a common failing for the majority of books in this genre. The predictability of the book didn't interfere with my enjoyment of it, though, because the prose was well-written.

My major complaint with the book would be the characterization of some of the key players in the story. The main character, Jane, spends a little too much time agonizing over a traumatic event in her past (an event that is not fully explained until about 2/3 of the way through the book). The author beats us over the head with the fact that Jane is hated in town, but it seems like she has at least four or five allies in the town's tiny population. The vampire Ryu is a pretty thin character, so in the future I hope that Peeler plans on expanding on him a little bit more. The character that I found the most compelling was also one who remained in the background for the majority of the novel. The character, a talking dog who occasionally turns into a human, seems to have known Jane longer than the others, and he has been with her through her darkest moments, yet he gets little-to-no development in the characterization department. Again, I hope that this is because the author intends for him to be a major player in the future, and perhaps she is keeping his backstory in reserve.

In the end, I would recommend this book as a beach read, if you're looking for something that can be read on vacation or in a single sitting (it took me only a few hours to read). If you're looking for something long, intricate, or with a good twist, you might look elsewhere.