Micro-Review Blind Spot

Blind Spot is Meljean Brook's contribution to the Must Love HellHounds Anthology. I read this short story a while ago, and forgot to post a review on it.

Meljean Brook writes these wonderful books from a series called the Guardians. They are a cross between urban fantasy and romance. The books are all intense, my favorite of them being the first full-length novel Demon Angel - featuring Lilith and Hugh. Interestingly, the beginnings of this series shows up as a short story in another anthology Hot Spell, with Colin one of the characters. Colin the Vampire, who is one of my favorite characters simply because of his extreme vanity. Ms Brook's latest novel, Demon Blood released this week.

Blind Spot is the story of Maggie Wren, Geoffrey Blake and Lilith's hellhound. Geoffrey Blake has been kidnapped - and apparently he's one of Colin's relatives. Maggie is an ex-operative who has recently started working for Colin's enterprises. She has a dark secret - something that could get her in a lot of trouble. Geoffrey has a secret also. Not only has Geoffrey been kidnapped -yet left for Maggie to find, but his sister has been kidnapped. Both of them have special talents that make them attractive to certain organizations.

You can't say much about a short story without giving out spoilers. Blind Spot is good addition to the stories of the Guardians. It's well written, with good dialogue and fun characters - especially the hellhound - Sir Pup.

Each of the books and short stories in Meljean Brook's Guardian Series feature different pairs of main characters. Each one has a continuing story arc, (overall story arc) as well as the immediate plot and romance. I've enjoyed each of the books that I've read so far.

Micro-Review Magic Mourns

I just finished the story Magic Mourns; this is Ilona Andrew's contribution to the Must Love Hellhounds anthology.

Great story told from the point of view of Andrea - the beastkin hyena. I really like Andrea's character. I read this story AFTER I read Magic Bleeds;really, this comes right before Magic Bleeds. What I love is that they wrote it from Andrea's pov, first person, and were able to make Andrea's "voice" sound like her own, not like another side of Kate's personality. Good writer's can do this - write about more than one character in the SAME WORLD, first person and make it work.

Magic Mourns is the story of how Andrea and Raphael (that extremely sexy-hot were-hyena) finally get together and how they rescue a ghost from a crazed navigator. There is a hell-hound featured in this story - a huge hell-hound that is protecting something.

There is also a part at the end, told from a completely different point of view - a kind of epilogue. I enjoyed it very much. There was nothing warning me that I was going to be reading a different character's narration- but I could tell right away, because the voice was very different- very masculine. I liked the way it was pulled off.

Even though this story had a romantic focus - as well as the adventure, I didn't feel overwhelmed with sexual encounters. Just enough to think, how nice for them, they finally got together - but not enough to make me feel I should have been reading it under the covers, by myself in a dark room.....

Micro-Review - Robber Bride

I keep anthologies in places where I might need to read for short periods of time. Then I slowly read a short story. I haven't been mentioning them in the blogs though. But I do finish a story here and there. Most of the time I'm not really impressed with the stories, or most of the writers in the anthology. But I just finished a story the other night written by Marjorie M Liu which is in the Anthology titled Huntress. The short was titled The Robber Bride.

I enjoyed The Robber Bride. It's set in a post-disaster world. There was a disease that wiped out most of the population world wide and people are barely subsisting, farming, trading, going without most of the things we take for granted now. Even things like a simple flower pot are pretty much unknowns for the current population. There are not cars, mass transit,etc although there are bicycles, horses and wagons. It's an interesting setting and Marjorie M Liu does an excellant job slowly revealing pieces of this world while we are reading the story. The main character (Maggie) tries to keep to herself (it's safer) on her little piece of land that she used to share with her grandfather. They traded in items. Maggie fixes things. But strangers come to town and take off with people and Maggie feels compelled to go after them. She discovers things on her journey that she really doesn't want to know.

The story was written so well, I was left wanting more at the end. I hope that eventually Ms Liu might return to this setting and write more about Maggie and her friends. The plot was engaging, the wording reminded me of a dark, dark fairytale, and the conversation was spare, but every piece of dialogue told a lot. I really enjoyed The Robber Bride.

There are three other stories in this anthology:

1. Devil's Bargain by Christine Warren - I started to read this, but lost interest
2. The Robber Bride - Marjorie M Liu - excellent story, great writing
3. Down in the Ground Where the Dead Men Go - Caitlin Kittredge (just started reading)
4. Sin Slayer - Jenna Maclaine - started this one, but also lost interest in it after the first few pages. I might go back to it, but I doubt it, it just didn't hold my interest.

From now on, when I finish reading a short story, I'll review it and list at least some of the other books in the anthology (if there's only a few stories - some anthologies have 20 stories in them)