Discount Armageddon *****
cover- it looks like she's putting some strange fashion sense ahead of common sense; but the outfit pictured here is really an outfit that Verity has to wear at her "dead-end" job. The job sort of pays the bills, when she can get tips (she tends to punch customers, losing tips). She works at a Fish & Chips/stripper bar - it's a strange combo. She doesn't strip, she waits tables {one day I want to read about a hunter/slasher that actually works in a job like stripping....kind of like Jezebel in Hells Bells by Jackie Kessler} Back to the cover - the skyline is cool - the book takes place in Manhatten, you can see some of her weapons and there she is on the rooftop. The rooftops of Manhatten play a big part in Verity's story.
Discount Armageddon is told in first person, from Verity Price's point of view. Verity -or Very- is a snarky young lady out to prove herself to her family while staying under the weather of the Covenent. There's this whole history of Price family members not only leaving the order, but convincing others to leave the order and see their point of view. The Covenent is an organization that hunts without discrimination any other species that don't fall into the human category. They are so into keeping humans safe that they will annihilate whole species. Some generations back one of the family members noticed a link between the disappearance of one species and the out break of a strong disease outbreak that ended up killing thousands of people... When the Covenent wouldn't listen, they went into hiding. The whole family has a price on their heads.
Verity has been living in Manhatten, under cover as a dancer who tries out for dances and broadway shows. The dancing keeps her in shape and limber, closely following martial art moves. Not sure if this is accurate, but it works for the story. While she is trying out for different parts and shows, she is also making contact whenever she can with the cryptids {aka Monsters, or "others:", supernaturals} of the city. This is not easy, because people remember the Prices and other family members as killers of supernaturals and it's not easy to change habits and build trust when your family used to do its best to annihilate. But Verity has done an excellent job when she can.
There's just one teeny little problem - suddenly cryptids are disappearing. It seems that most of the cryptids who are disappearing are also young , single females. And when Verity tries to get some informaiton out of a cryptid, things get even worse. Now whole families are disappearing as well as young, single females...
And there's a rumor about a dragon....On top of that, it seems there is a young man from the coven getting in her way, making her drool, and generally wreaking havoc on her dance life, her undercover work and her emotions.
Throughout all of this, Verity keeps of a steady stream of snark. I was engaged through out the entire book. There were a few places where I felt like I was reading an educational novel, but these were thankfully shortlived, and about interesting species. So not as bad as it could have been. The dialogue between characters was believable and extremely fun to read in most places. The narration was good, with only the occasional lecture tones. The fight scenes were pretty good, though I though Verity should trained more on how to hold on to her weapons - seriously the girl kept getting her weapons thrown or knocked out of reach and how is that anyway to win any fight? All in all, a fun book to read with a lot of humor thrown in to balance out the gore and suspense. Good mix
It appears to be the beginning of a series. Based on this first novel, I' open to buying the next upcoming novel, Midnight Blue Special which will come out in March of 2013. Not sure what's up with the titles - I really couldn't figure out where the discount came in....though it might have something to do with the...well, that would be a spoiler. *g* But seriously - ...Blue Special? is it going to take place in a greasy spoon or a K-Mart?
As most people probably know by now - Seanan McGuire is not only the author of the October Daye series, but writes as Mira Grant the zombie series containing Feed and Deadline as well as poetry, songs and other things. There's something by her for everyone's taste.
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