Urban Fantasy - UK vs US Book Covers

Or - why are some UK covers so darn ugly? And I know it's not all of them. It just seems that a lot of the series I like that end up getting published in the UK then end up with some of the most awful covers, to the point where if I'm iffy about continuing with a series it can be the final nail in the coffin.

Some evidence below. In all cases the US cover is on the left, UK cover on the right.

The US covers for the Mercy Thompson series are gorgeous. I know there are people who like the UK covers, but to me when compared to the stunning US ones they are kind of yuck. As I love the series I have to find the US covers. Some of the UK urban fantasy covers are just so ugly and rather generic.

For the Kim Harrison series when the books started being published in the UK I kind of stopped getting them. Seriously, I think if I'd still been able to get hold of the US covers easily I would probably have continued with the series. As it is I think I stalled out at book 4. That book is still on my TBR pile, but I've kind of never got round to reading it and book 5 languishes on my Amazon wishlist.

This doesn't just have to do with the book covers, though when they are that yellow it doesn't help. When you're in the UK and are into a US series, when a UK publisher comes along and buys the series you're happy that it's good news for the author. But in general the publisher then f*cks up the relationship the reader has with the series. The number of series I have stopped reading because a UK publisher gained the rights - Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series, Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse, the above mentioned Kim Harrison's series. :sigh: but I guess that's a post for another day. Back to the yucky covers.

The Working for the Devil cover illustrates what I mean by generic. If you removed the author's name from the cover, this could easily be a UK cover for a Kim Harrison book.

And, okay, I get it, they've given urban fantasy an identity on the bookshelf at Borders. But it's such an ugly one.

Compare the three US covers, they are all unique. And whilst the Working for the Devil cover is not one of my favourites, I'd take it over the blah blah look of the three UK covers any day.

But, I admit, there are always exceptions to any sweeping generalizations I may make. :) I love Kelley Armstrongs UK covers. They've given the series a strong identity, but are individual to each book and not blah.

And for gorgeous painted covers, you can't get much better than the UK Gollancz covers for the Warprize series by Elizabeth Vaughan. I do like the US cover but the UK one is just beautiful.

Anyone have any others they'd like to share?

Angel of Mercy by Toni Andrews

Angel of Mercy is the second in the Mercy Hollings series by Toni Andrews. Picking up from where Beg for Mercy ended, it finds Mercy trying to resume her life following the traumatic events of the previous book. It's slightly difficult to summarize the plot of this one - more of that later - but a lot of the story is concerned with Mercy trying to help out at a battered woman's refuge and how once again her use of the 'press' has unforeseen consequences.

I didn't like this book quite as much as the first for some reasons and slightly more than the first for other reasons. I know that doesn't make much sense now, but hopefully I'll explain myself during the review and by the end it will.

On the liking of the book first. I think Mercy is one of the few UF heroines who has a normal human friend. Someone who's there to slap her upside the head when she's doing something stupid. It makes a refreshing change. This is one of the things that raises this series for me, the fact that Mercy has relationships with people - not just people who want to have sex with her, or who want to control her power or use her, but actual relationships. I like that she has a rottweiler called Cupcake which she owns on a part-time basis with Sukey her best friend.

Sukey really starts to come into her own in this book. She acts as a foil to Mercy, her cheerful and sunny personality contrasting with Mercy's more dark and sombre one. Their experience with Dominic has left them with a telepathic connection which Sukey thinks is cool, but Mercy isn't so sure.

Sukey grinned like a happy six-year old. "Can we do an experiment? I have some ideas."
I'd bet she had.

Sukey gives Mercy a link to her humanity and keeps her grounded. I love that she spends most of this book teaching herself how to be a detective from a book titled - The Exciting World of Private Investigation.

Meanwhile, Mercy's relationship with Sam comes under strain.

Something in his tone made me look at him - really look at him. Wow, he's really pissed.

She is unable to tell him her secret and discovers that he has also been keeping secrets from her. You slightly want to scream at them to 'talk to each other!'. You understand her reasons for behaving the way she does, but she could handle it better.

Having seen off Dominic in the previous book she is the only supernatural creature about. I count this as another plus. Rather than having a story over-run with every creature going - and there's nothing wrong with that - we have a very tight focus on Mercy, her relationships and her problems both with her powers and with her life. It makes for a very different UF read. (Slightly bummed that Dominic won't be coming back by the way, he was one of the best bad guys I'd read in a while).

Toni Andrews makes it clear that the power of the press - the ability to force someone to do something - is both a blessing and a curse. The wrong words said in haste can have terrible repercussions, but Mercy is only human - she gets angry, she gets upset, she reacts without thinking and then tells herself she's never going to do it again. (Yes, if you haven't guessed, she suffers from the traditional UF heroine fault of not listening to her inner voice, even when it's screaming at her not to do something.)

Bearing all that in mind, the main problem I had with this book is the plot structure. If you read the blurb it sounds like Mercy's intervention at the battered women's refuge will be the main focus of the plot, but this storyline is wrapped up with about 50 pages to go. We then end the book with Mercy (with encouragement from Sukey and help from The Exciting World of Prifvate Detection) pursuing information that may shed light onto Mercy's past - who she is, what she is. That is maybe Mercy's main goal in this book, trying to answer the question of whether she's human. But because that story is running parallel to the story about Anna and Grace, the ending is a little bit mishmashy, and kind of just peters out.

I'm going to stick with this series as it is different to the other UF stuff out there. But I hope there's a little more focus on the plot in the next one.

Book 1 - Beg for Mercy
Book 3 - Cry Mercy (June 2009)

10 Things Every Potential UF Heroine Needs to Know

So this post comes with thanks to KMont over at Lurvalamode who told me I should write it. :) It's slightly tongue in cheek and based on sweeping generalizations. So here are 10 things every potential urban fantasy heroine needs to know.










1) Make sure you have good posture, as it's most likely your back that will be gracing your book cover. Tattoos would be a nice touch.

2) If you are beaten, mugged, murdered or otherwise assaulted do not be surprised if you wake up in the hospital with hitherto unrealized supernatural powers.

3) You will have no girlfriends. All the women you meet will either be a) passing acquaintances, b) bitter enemies or c) so powerful, you have no common point of reference. If you do have a girlfriend, she'll shortly be leaving to start a UF series of her own or worse see #10.

4) Do not be judgmental about the sexual practices of others. Chances are that at some point you'll find yourself:- a) with a harem or b) engaging in sado-masochistic acts with a demon. And no one likes to hear the words - "I told you so."

5) That vampire/werewolf/weird creature that you can't stand, but are strangely attracted to in Book 1 will be your husband/partner/significant other by Book 3.

6) You are not always right. You do not always know what is best for others. Decisions made when you think these thoughts are almost always destined to end badly. (This also includes the times you tell your allies that you aren't going to do anything, but are secretly planning to follow your own ideas anyway.)

7) If your vampire/werewolf/weird creature (see #5) has an ex-wife, either deceased or just out of the picture. He will NOT have gotten over her. Even if he says he has, there will be some sort of unresolved issue.

8) Be prepared because said wife will undoubtedly make a reappearance at some point in the series, and it won't be to wish you joy in your new relationship.

9) If you have not developed supernatural powers by your 24th birthday. Do not worry. Bestowal of said gifts often coincides with your 25th year and may not necessarily involve being beaten, mugged or murdered. (Though that isn't guaranteed.)

10) If you have a human boyfriend in Book 1. He will probably end up resenting you and running off with the woman you thought was your best friend. (see #3). Or become suspicious and resentful because you never tell him the truth and keep secrets. He'll decide to give you some space and you'll never see him again. Though he may miraculously reappear at the same time as the ex-wife (see #8).

Anyone got any others to add?

Possession by Jennifer Armintrout

SPOILERS IN REVIEW SPOILERS IN REVIEW SPOILERS IN REVIEW SPOILERS



Have you ever bought a book, wondered why on Earth you bought it, put it on your TBR pile, forgotten about it, then finally read it and wondered why on Earth you'd waited so long to read it?

Or does that just happen to me?

Don't get me wrong I really liked the first book in the Blood Ties series. I think one of the things I liked most about it, was that Jennifer Armintrout's vampires are predators. Too often it seems that vampires end up being watered down to the point of being completely unscary.

I like the second book even more. Mainly because parts of it were very funny - usually the parts involving Max, who I think is now my favourite character. But there's a balance here, terrible things are still happening, there's angst and heartbreak, but there are also moments of joy and happiness in the sorrow. A little slow in the beginning, so probably why I kept picking it up and putting it down, by the time you get to the middle the story is fairly racing along.

Possession picks up not long after the end of The Turning. Just as things seem to be returning to normal, things go to hell - as they often seem to in UF. Carrie's second sire Nathan is possessed (hence the title) and he kills an innocent human being. A big no-no for the Voluntary Vampire Execution Movement, who promptly send out an assassin to kill him. But Nathan is being tormented by the Soul Eater who it seems has plans to become a God. Carrie has got an awful lot to do, if she intends to sort this mess out and stay alive (undead) whilst doing it.

Okay, up til now it's been spoiler free. So you can still turn away at this point.

Still here? Don't say you weren't warned.

Cyrus is back. Now this isn't really too big a spoiler as such, because he's back by page 8, possibly as far as you'd get if you browsed in a book store. I mention it now, because I don't think I can get through the whole review without letting it slip, one way or another. (Just want to say that he now reminds me slightly of Sylar in Heroes Season 3). He is somewhat redeemed here, for his actions in the previous book. Or at least you appreciate, that in different circumstances, he would have been a different man.

Will quickly mention here the character of the Oracle, I thought she was a great character (slightly reminiscent of the precogs in Minority Report only a lot older, a lot scarier and with a lot more blood) and even though she only made a brief appearance, it was a powerful one.

There are initially two stories here - the resurrection of Cyrus and the possession of Nathan and what Carrie intends to do about it. Later on we have a third subplot added where Max gets a point of view. All these story threads eventually intersect, as our good guys do their best to save Nathan.

Carrie is not a perfect heroine. She makes mistakes. Some of her mistakes end in tragedy. She also has the UF heroine flaw of thinking she knows what's best/what's right/what needs to be done. But her intentions are usually in the right place. She's reliant on herself for a lot of this book. Nathan has gone awol, the VVEM is baying for blood and if her instincts get her into unusual situations, she's usually able to get herself out of them. The scene in the brothel is one of my favourites.

"...I've been doing some research," I explained, feeling like a hopeless dork. Then I wondered why I cared if some random male prostitute thought I was a nerd.

My favourite plot of the book without doubt though, is the developing relationship between Max the vampire, and Bella the werewolf. It provides a lot of the humor in the book as we get to see Max going from a werewolf despising vampire to one who thinks this particular werewolf is pretty okay. What makes it even better is that we get to hear his internal monologue, as what he says to Bella and what he thinks (as he gets to know her) bears little resemblance.

Shaking his head, Max groaned. She was not beautiful. He was just horny. He'd find a way to make that her fault - not in the obvious way, because bestiality wasn't his thing - later.

Anyone who dislikes Bella as much as Max does, has to be a little attracted too. It's like he has to continually reinforce why he doesn't like her, otherwise he just might succumb to her werewolfy charms. I could quote and quote his dialogue and fill up the review. He probably has most of the best lines, and he's not afraid to say what he thinks.

So I have to get the next books in the series now. Though my fingers are triple crossed (not really, that's just an expression) that Max makes a big appearance in the upcoming books. He made this book for me and while I want to know what's going to happen next with Carrie and how she intends to ultimately sort out the situation with Nathan and the Soul Eater. I want to know what's going to happen with Max as well.

The Turning - Book 1
Ashes to Ashes - Book 3
All Souls' Night - Book 4

The Taste of Night - Vicki Pettersson

The Taste of Night by Vicki Pettersson (published April 2007)

Why was this still on my TBR pile? I think I'd read the first book and kind of been blown away by it, but for some reason the second book just fell by the wayside as I got hooked on other series. I don't remember the specifics of Book 1, but managed to pick up the gist through reading book 2.

Joanna Archer is the Kairos - equal parts light and shadow, she currently fights as the Archer (sagittarius) for the Zodiac of Light in Las Vegas. As the Agents of Dark release a terrifying epidemic on the city that will kill both Agents of Light and innocent humans, it will be up to her to put things right and by doing so fulfil the second half of the Kairos prophecy.

I enjoyed this book very much, but I didn't like it as much as the first book - hope that makes sense. More about my quibbles and niggles later in the review. First the stuff I liked.

This book like the first is full of quotable dialogue, snappy banter and backtalk. Regular readers of the blog will know this is one of the things I love about UF. And Joanna is another UF heroine who has a fine line in the bitchy comment department.

Troy was full of shit, but I wasn't going to say that to Suzanne. I made it a rule to never say anything bad about my friend's boyfriends until I was sure they were well and truly out of the picture - preferably dead.

This is also probably the only UF you'll read which features the pencil test. :)

Joanna is so sure of herself and her beliefs, she gets very tunnel-visioned. This kind of application of self can be both constructive and destructive. It's ultimately only the fact the she's able to pull herself out of this focus that saves her. And will probably save her future as well, at the end of the book, she's no longer the same person she was at the beginning. I'm hoping this character growth is carried on into the next story.

She's not a heroine that you instantly warm to, probably why book 2 has been on my TBR pile for a while. She's ambiguous and I actually quite like not knowing which way she may go. It's quite clever that Vicki Pettersson leaves us with the possibility she may join the Agents of Darkness and you believe it could be possible.

It's the other characters that fall into Joanna's sphere and humanize her, that help you root for her. Hunter mentioned later on, and Cher (Olivia's friend) who while apparently ditzy comes out with some great lines.

"Olivia's trying to decide if she wants to munch rug, but first she's looking for cheap sex with a stranger and no strings attached, just to make sure."

The sort of character who'll be quite happily talking along and then all of a sudden will say something that makes you double take. :)

Just like the previous book I think most of my favourite bits happen in the comic store. I just love the whole idea of the manuals and the light and dark comics. And ordinary people reading them - including Olivia's best friend - without knowing what it is that they're reading.

Quibbles

This second book took a little getting into, it didn't hook me from the start. It wasn't until around page 67 that I'm completely 'into' the story.

Hunter and Joanna have great light the page up chemistry, you can practically feel the hormones coming off the page. But she is still hung up on Ben, the boyfriend from her past life. My problem is when she's not with Ben (which is the vast majority of the book as he believes she's dead) I want her to be with Hunter. But when she is with Ben I can see it's kind of sweet and then I'm just left wanting her to make a decision. Because it feels obvious to me that she cannot be with Ben. Then I'm left feeling frustrated, which might be the effect the author is going for? But I hope this issue is going to be resolved soon.

I am still confused about Joanna's secret identity and who does and doesn't know who she actually is. This is something I have to try and forget about as I'm reading, as thinking about it too much causes my brain to turn to mush. Speaking of being confused - the original manual - one master copy, or one copy per city? I get the feeling at some point Joanna is going to be looking for this important book but I didn't quite grasp how many there are. Although I think the worldbuilding is fascinating and original, some of it just goes straight over my head.

Even given the men in her life and the fact that she's had to take on her sister's friendships to maintain her secret identity. I felt for a lot of this that Joanna is quite isolated as a character, now my feelings on this did change slightly, I feel maybe she is making a place for herself. At the end of the book I think I am quite hopeful about the next installment, which I've already ordered. :)

Book 1 - The Scent of Shadows
Book 3 - The Touch of Twilight
Book 4 - City of Souls (Jul 2009)

Broken Wing by Judith Jones

I am going to say it again - I am not really an historicals reader. Which is perhaps why this book didn't grab me in the same way it's caught the imagination of so many others. Now there were parts of it I really enjoyed, but on the whole this wasn't for me. Which I am disappointed about, as there's nothing like being caught up by a really great book.

Broken Wing tells the story of Gabriel St. Croix, raised in a brothel, he worked as a prostitute servicing both male and female clients. For the past five years he has protected a young boy - Jamie Munroe - from suffering the same fate as him. And when the boy’s family comes to claim him, they also rescue the man who protected him.

Returning to England with Sarah Munroe and her half brother Russ Monroe, Gabriel’s eyes are opened to a world previously denied to him, and gradually he falls in love with Sarah. He wants to be worthy of her love and determines to earn his fortune and prove himself. But the best laid plans often go awry and Gabriel will have to revisit his darkest nightmares before he can finally have a home of his own.

I know I said it at the beginning but I really wanted to like this book. The girls at Ramblings on Romance were so infectious in their enthusiasm that it was heady to be caught up in it. But it didn’t quite work for me. This is a promising debut and I do think Judith Jones is an author to watch out for.

Gabriel is a fascinating hero and the best drawn character in the story.

“He realized he had no secrets left from her. She’d taken them from him, claiming them one by one, and then she’d claimed him…”

With the other characters being slightly more two-dimensional, acting as foils for his development. It is his progression that keeps you interested in the story. He’s complex, pushes away what he desperately wants and provokes those who mean him no harm. Through the Munroes a new world is opened up for him. A world so unlike his, that it takes him a while to believe that he is really being given this opportunity.

In a way Sarah, (who is slightly Mary Sue) is the perfect heroine for him. Her love makes no demands of him, other than what he’s willing to give. And there are some beautiful scenes between the two of them.

“Cry, my sweet angel,” she murmured, soft, in his ear. “It’s all right, it’s over now. You’re here with me and I’ll never let go of you.”

I did have some problems with the story.

There is a tendency for characters to talk in exclamation marks. (This is a real bugbear of mine.) I have visions of them walking around with eyebrows permanently raised in incredulity. With Sarah Munroe being the worst offender.

“Good God, Ross! That was cruel and uncalled for! You might be speaking of Jamie, if not for him!”

There is a lot of head hopping between characters. But I felt with the exception of Gabriel that we never really got to know anyone. There are also jumps in time, sometimes combined with the head hopping.

I hope I haven't made it sound like I disliked the story because that wasn't the case, it just didn't completely work for me. Part of me wonders if this story would have been better told over more than one book - a la the Outlander Saga - allowing us the time to get to know all of the characters and enjoy more detail of events. Towards the end it felt like we were racing through one situation after another and I wanted things to slow down so we could go deeper into what was happening.

For a debut novel I think there is much to enjoy here, and someone who is perhaps more appreciative of the genre would get more out of the story.

Giveaway Closed.

A Strong and Sudden Thaw by R.W.Day

In a sentence this is a cross between The Day (After the Day) After Tomorrow and Reign of Fire with a m/m romance.

Set nearly a hundred years after an apparently worldwide apocalyptic event, A Strong and Sudden Thaw follows the developing relationship between David Anderson a farmer’s son and Callan Landers the new assistant healer in the town of Moline. In a world where homosexuality is a criminal offence, every meeting and encounter is filled with the risk of discovery. It’s through Callan being discovered in the arms of another man that David finally acknowledges the truth about himself. And also how he learns what price he may have to pay as Callan suffers the punishment for his ‘crime’.

But the town of Moline is also under threat from an unexpected source. When livestock and children are attacked by dragons and the government representatives do nothing. It will be up to David and Callan to save the town .

One of my top three favourite books of the year. I loved this book!

Just to address first of all a couple of comments I read on some of the Amazon reviews. (Wanted to check these comments but looks like the book is being re-released at the end of December so the reviews have been pulled. Hope my faulty memory is remembering these comments reasonably okay).

Some reviews state they think it’s unrealistic that the world would regress so quickly following the Ice Age. Having seen a documentary about what would happen if human beings left the world I’m not so sure. Taking into account the huge death toll that’s likely to occur during such events and the fact that I (and I suspect the vast majority of people) don’t know how to fix a generator let alone run a nuclear power station, I don’t find it difficult to believe that the majority of the human race quickly finds itself back in a pre-industrial revolution state. (I’m sure there’s a significant minority that land in roses rather than shit, but this book isn’t about them).

Other comments reference the poor grammar. This I’m sure is intentional, the story is told from David’s point of view. He has common sense but not book learning and therefore doesn’t always use the correct verb or turn of phrase, but I liked this, it kept us firmly inside his head and his feelings. So I'm assuming any comments about the book being poorly edited reference this, and that the reviewers kind of missed the point.

One of the early analogies in the book is about the similarities between a human mob and a flock of sheep. And that sheep are essentially stupid animals. When the chips are down, humans have a tendency to behave like sheep, it takes people/characters with strong conviction to be able to stand against a crowd, even if they know that the crowd is wrong.

"(Pa) says sheep and people are alike, mostly. I don’t know that I agree, but he says I just haven’t lived long enough yet."

I love the way the characters are drawn in the book. You get a very real sense of the individuals and the community in which they live. And I loved the relationship between David and the members of his family. Just from the first few pages you are immediately drawn into the town of Moline. Which although it has a future post-apocalyptic setting, reminded me of the old west.

The thread that holds the story together is the relationship between David and Callan. David who at the beginning doesn’t even know what homosexual (or sodomite) means. But from his first meeting with Callan, he is drawn to the new healer in a way he has never been with anyone else.

"His hair reminded me of sunlight and shadow dancing over a field of wheat, dark in places, light in others, and his eyes were the almost invisible blue of the spring sky."

I love that they come together through books - Huckleberry Finn, Ivanhoe, Lord of the Flies. And how David comes to take what he learns from these books and apply it to the world around him. The loss of individuality and identity that comes from the mob - Lord of the Flies, doing the right thing even if it isn’t the legal thing - Huckleberry Finn. The books and Callan, open him up, start him thinking for himself. He no longer relies on what his elders tell him to be true, he wants to discover his own truth.

If you have never read a m/m book before and want to know a good place to start. I would recommend this book. The love scenes are beautifully written and erotic but not graphic.

"Please. That’s the most erotic word in the English language, you know."

Their relationship progresses slowly and there is a wonderful sense of falling in love for the first time - right before everything goes to shit because of course in this time a man falling in love with another man is a criminal offence and in certain circumstances punishable by death.

You’re aware as you read that something terrible happened to Callan before he came to Moline. Little hints that slip from him. And when we eventually find out what happened - it’s awful and terrible but at the same time it allows him to understand the sacrifices human beings are capable of to save the ones they love.

And then there are the dragons. Someone wants the town of Moline to die and they aren’t too concerned about who gets hurt in the process. Although a lot of the questions raised early in the book are answered by the end and there is a satisfactory conclusion to David and Callan’s story. There’s the feeling that there is more to come. That the story is being told by a much older David. I hope at some point in the future to be able to read the sequel to ASAST, as I don‘t think David and Callan‘s story is quite finished yet. Highly recommended.