“Magic Slays” by Ilona Andrews w/Bonus Review of “Magic Dreams” (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)

Official Ilona Andrews Website

Order “Magic Slays” HERE

Read An Excerpt HERE

Read FBC’s Review of “Magic Bites” & “Magic Burns”

Read FBC’s Review of “Magic Strikes” & “Magic Mourns”

Read FBC’s Review of “Magic Bleeds” & “A Questionable Client”

Read FBC’s Interview with Ilona Andrews

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Ilona Andrews is the pseudonym for the husband-and-wife writing team of Ilona Gordon & Andrew Gordon. Together, Andrew and Ilona are the co-authors of the New York Times bestselling Kate Daniels urban fantasy series and the romantic urban fantasy novels of The Edge.

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS: Plagued by a war between magic and technology, Atlanta has never been so deadly. Good thing Kate Daniels is on the job.

Kate may have quit the Order of Merciful Aid, but she’s still knee-deep in paranormal problems. Or she would be if she could get someone to hire her. Starting her own business has been more challenging than she thought it would be—now that the Order is disparaging her good name, and many potential clients are afraid of getting on the bad side of the Beast Lord, who just happens to be Kate’s mate.

So when Ghastek, Atlanta’s premier Master of the Dead, calls to ask for help with a vampire on the loose, Kate leaps at the chance of some paying work. Turns out this is not an isolated incident, and Kate needs to get to the bottom of it—fast, or the city and everyone dear to her might pay the ultimate price with their deaths…

FORMAT/INFO: Magic Slays is 308 pages long divided over a prologue, twenty-three chapters, and an epilogue. Like the previous books, narration is in the first-person, exclusively via Kate Daniels. Magic Slays has a self-contained plot, but is the fifth volume in the series. Readers who jump in with this book can reasonably understand what is going on, but there are many references to people and events from the previous volumes which can cause confusion, so it’s advisable to start from the beginning of the series.

May 31, 2011 marked the North American Mass Market Paperback publication of "Magic Slays" via Ace Books. Cover art provided by Chad Michael Ward.

ANALYSIS: Last year’s release, Magic Bleeds, was a terrific book, really setting the stage for exciting developments for Kate, Curran and the rest of the denizens of Atlanta. As a result, it was a long wait for Magic Slays, which came with a huge amount of anticipation and promise.

Set three months after the events of Magic Bleeds, Kate is now mated to Curran—the Beast Lord—and is the female alpha of the Pack by extension. Due to previous events, Kate is also no longer a part of the Order of the Merciful Aid, and has struck out on her own as a private investigator. Unfortunately, she has had issues finding clients because of her previous employers. That is, until Kate receives a call from Ghastek about a loose vampire, which leads to another job involving a missing object. Thus begins the plot of Magic Slays, which pits Kate against an order of people determined to reclaim Atlanta and the rest of the world from those they deem inhuman. Kate will also reunite with someone from the previous books; adjust to being the mate of the leader of the Pack; discover strange ties to a fan favorite character from her past who also happens to be on Curran’s shit list; and deal with her unhappy niece Julie.

Thematically, Magic Slays explores what happens when two people who have been struggling with the world and themselves, are finally together. How do they deal with each other and the world? This question is magnified when the couple is Kate & Curran; both headstrong and opinionated individuals. Kate because of the way she was brought up by her guardian Voron, and Curran because of his status as the Beast Lord. Even though they seem to be polar opposites, Kate & Curran possess a strong bond that is strengthened by their love for one another. A bond that was tested in the last book, and will be tested even further in Magic Slays.

Family is another strong theme in the book, with many characters placed in situations due to familial conundrums. In particular, we get to learn more about Kate’s parents—information which might become crucial in the fight ahead. Additionally, readers are reacquainted with characters who have taken a backseat in the previous volumes, while subplots like the Midnight Palace fiasco and the appearance of Patriarchal relatives in Atlanta are further developed. There are also certain instances where Kate’s obligations get in her way, which was fun to read about and demonstrated character growth since she had to learn how to handle responsibility. The authors also continue to tie their short fiction with their novels. In this case, we get to see more of the mythos from the short story, “A Questionable Client”. Finally, there’s the climax which unleashes a pivotal event in the series and would be cool to see from Curran’s POV in the future. Throughout all of this, the authors do their best to subvert reader expectations and surprise them with new plot directions.

Negatively, I didn’t have anything to criticize about in this volume. In the past, predictability was an issue, but Magic Slays constantly surprises with its numerous plot twists, and I’m really looking forward to the direction the series is taking with only two more books to go until the finale. In short, the authors have really improved their craft since Magic Bites, and with each book, they just get better and better...

CONCLUSION: Magic Slays is not only another standout volume in the Kate Daniels series, but it is also a book that will slay reader expectations, while leaving longtime fans anxiously awaiting the sixth entry in Ilona Andrews magical saga...

BONUS REVIEW — “Magic Dreams”:

Order “Hexed” HERE

Read An Excerpt from “Magic Dreams” HERE

In addition to Magic Slays, 2011 also sees the release of a new novella from Ilona Andrews called “Magic Dreams”, which is featured in the Hexed anthology and includes contributions  from Yasmine Galenorn, Allyson James and Jeanne C. Stein. “Magic Dreams” focuses on Jim and Dali, who are both from the Cat clan. Jim is the alpha and the head of security for the Pack, while Dali is a white were-tigress who was last seen in Magic Strikes. “Magic Dreams” is sixty-eight pages long and is narrated entirely by Dali Harimau.

The novella is set a few weeks after the climax of Magic Bleeds and does not contain any spoilers for Magic Slays. The story begins with Jim visiting Dali—who is an expert of all things magical as was revealed in Magic Strikes—because he cannot remember what happened when he was investigating a certain mishap at a northwestern office. Figuring out what is happening at this office, and how Dali helps Jim, is the crux of the story.

Ilona Andrews has a rather crucial sense of what works and what doesn’t, and choosing to focus on Dali—a minor, but fascinating character from Magic Strikes who shines because of her quirkiness and vulnerability—was a great decision. Throw in intriguing Indonesian and Japanese mythologies, a rather funny side to a mother-daughter bond, and top-notch writing, and it’s no wonder that “Magic Dreams” is my favorite Kate Daniels-related short story so far.

All in all, “Magic Dreams” is another worthy addition to the Kate Daniels universe, and I hope the authors consider writing more stories about Dali as I for one would love to read more about the white were-tigress in a central role...

Very High Heels and Fishnet Stockings

Very High Heels and Fishnet Stockings...

Last weekend a friend of mine visited me - you might know her (she posted some photos on this high heel blog a while ago - e.g. Black Oxford High Heels and black seamed Stockings). She stayed 3 days at my place - and so I asked her if she would like to do a shoe-photoshooting again as a kind of revival. So, here are the results - just some funny but still sexy high heels and stockings pix - she even did some shoeplay and dangling pictures for you ;) . She is still used to very high heels - so she wears the 6 inch domina high heels from pleaser shoes very well. To the heels she wore black fishnet stockings, a quite short black mini skirt and of course a tight corset over the blouse and a tie - as we wanted to look like sexy business ladies ;). And I think we managed very good -imagine me and her walking into an office with these heels and outfit?

Hope you like it?! Best high heeled greetings and kisses
- Vivian

“The Watchers” by Jon Steele (Reviewed by Robert Thompson)

Official Jon Steele Facebook
Order “The Watchers” HERE

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Jon Steele was an award-winning cameraman and editor for ITN for more than twenty years. He has traveled and worked through seventy-eight countries across six continents. War Junkie, his autobiography of a life behind the camera in some of the worst places on earth, was published in 2002 and has become a cult classic of war reportage. The Watchers is his debut novel.

PLOT SUMMARY: Lausanne, Switzerland...

In the Lausanne Cathedral, Marc Rochat, a strange boy with a limp, watches over the city. He lives in a world of shadows and beforetimes and imaginary beings, waiting for the angel his mother told him he'd one day have to save.

Marc believes that angel is Katherine Taylor, a high-priced escort who is about to discover that her real-life fairy tale is too good to be true.

Meanwhile, Jay Harper wakes up one day with no memory of who he is, where he came from, or what he did before. Offered a job as a freelance security specialist for the International Olympic Committee, he has no choice but to accept. On the trail of a missing former hockey star, Harper crosses paths with Marc Rochat and Katherine Taylor, which he will discover is no coincidence.

Three lives. One purpose...

FORMAT/INFO: The Watchers is 560 pages long divided over a prologue called ‘Quietus’, four titled books, forty numbered chapters, and an Epilogue. Narration is in the third person via Marc Rochat, Katherine Taylor and Jay Harper. The Watchers is mostly self-contained, coming to a satisfying stopping point, but it’s the first book in a trilogy. The sequels are tentatively titled Angel City and The Way of Sorrows. June 9, 2011 marks the UK Hardcover publication of The Watchers via Bantam Press.

ANALYSIS: Like many other reviewers, Jon Steele’s The Watchers caught my attention because of its tagline: “Imagine The Bourne Identity rewritten by Neil Gaiman.” After finishing the book, I can see why the publisher chose such a comparison, but it is a little misleading. The truth is, The Watchers is a very difficult novel to classify.

For starters, the book opens with a prologue set in 1917, at the Battle of Vimy Ridge during the first World War. It’s a beautifully written prologue—full of magic, wonder and mystery—and immediately intriguing, but how these events are connected with the rest of the book are not revealed until much later in the novel.

From this prologue, The Watchers shifts to present day Switzerland with the next 300-some pages of the novel introducing and cultivating the book’s three main characters and their relationship to one another: Marc Rochat, a 21-year-old boy, handicapped both mentally and physically, who serves as the guardian of Lausanne Cathedral—think Quasimodo; Katherine Taylor, a 26-year-old American former Playboy star who moved to Switzerland to work as an escort for the Two Hundred Club which caters to Europe’s rich and powerful; and Jay Harper, a thirty-something Brit who cannot remember anything prior to waking up and accepting a job as a freelance security specialist for the International Olympic Committee.

How these three characters are connected to one another is all part of the “mysterious mystery” that Jon Steele slowly unravels during the first two-thirds of the novel, which also involves a once famous Russian hockey player gone missing, Inspector Gobet who may or may not be crooked, extremely dangerous killers, and Lausanne Cathedral. Most of this “mysterious mystery” is presented through Harper’s narrative, which contains a detective noir influence. Over the course of the book, Harper also suddenly remembers things—understanding French, quoting poems, etc.—without knowing where that knowledge came from, which is where The Bourne Identity comparison comes in. Meanwhile, a Book of Enoch subplot—“an apocryphal book of the Hebrew Bible, long discredited until it was discovered as part of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948”—is introduced around page 280, injecting a Dan Brown element in the novel. Magic realism on the other hand, best describes the narratives by Marc Rochat and Katherine Taylor, although a sense of ambiguity keeps the reader guessing as to what is real and what is imagined.

It’s around page 360 that The Watchers starts shifting in another direction. Before that point, I was completely engrossed by the book, thanks mainly to Jon Steele’s exquisite writing, which in turn is the key behind the novel’s compelling main characters, a vividly described setting that felt almost as real as what I imagine the genuine article would be like—especially Lausanne Cathedral, and a story that brilliantly straddles the line between reality and fantasy. Characterization in particular, is a high point of the novel because of the amount of detail and effort that is used to flesh out the protagonists’ different personalities, narrative voices and worldviews. Of the three, Marc Rochat is easily the most interesting because of his uniquely charming outlook on life (detectiveman, weather-teller, workermen, beforetimes, nowtimes) and the way he communicates with ghosts, his cat Monsieur Booty, and the bells of Lausanne Cathedral.

The story admittedly, is a bit slow-moving and lacking in the action & adventure department—which can be partly attributed to the amount of details and information used by the author in establishing the setting and characters—but it’s really the nature of the book. In other words, The Watchers was never meant to be a page-turner like a James Patterson or Dan Brown novel. Instead, The Watchers is a character-driven book—where even the environment is a character—and editing out what may seem like unnecessary details, would only lessen the novel’s impact. Besides, The Watchers is gripping in its own way, as I found it nearly impossible to put the book down. At least for the first two-thirds of the novel.

Once the book starts shifting into supernatural territory around page 360, The Watchers becomes less engrossing. Part of the problem is that once the cat is let out of the bag, the novel loses its intriguing sense of mystery and ambiguity and becomes a straightforward battle between good and evil. Another problem is that the supernatural elements—fallen angels, Nephilim, dead black potion, time wake, stasis, etc.—lack the detail and clarity found in the rest of the book, giving the last third of the novel an unfinished feel. However, since The Watchers is just the first volume in a trilogy, I’m hoping the sequels will explain the supernatural war in much greater detail. Finally, the author goes a little overboard with some of The Watcher’s supernatural elements, especially compared to everything that came before, but the Epilogue was satisfying while introducing a number of interesting developments to be explored in the next book...

CONCLUSION: Because The Watchers shifts between so many different genres—historical fiction, detective noir, magic realism, religious conspiracy, supernatural thriller—it’s difficult to say what kind of audience would enjoy Jon Steele’s debut. Personally, I loved The Watchers because of Jon Steele’s exquisite writing, the novel’s compelling protagonists and the vivid setting, but I felt the supernatural elements did not work nearly as well as the rest of the book and I’m a bit worried at how the author handles these elements in the sequels. Nevertheless, The Watchers mostly enthralls, seizing the heart and imagination, while leaving the reader satisfied, but still tempted for more...

THE INDIE DAY GIVEAWAY: Win an AMAZON KINDLE featuring M.R. Mathias’ Entire Bibliography + E-Books from his Favorite Independent Authors!!!

Official M.R. Mathias Website

Order “Kings, Queens, Heroes & Fools” HERE (Amazon) + HERE (Smashwords)

Read An Excerpt HERE (PDF) + HERE

Read FBC’s Review of “The Sword & the Dragon”

Join Hyden Hawk, and friends, on an adventurous quest, over land and sea, to find the Silver Skull of Zorellin.

Fight with Mikahl, Ironspike, and fierce King Jarrek as they try to free the enslaved people of Wildermont from King Ra’Gren and his Dakaneese Overlords.

Patrol the skies with Shaella, and her new black dragon, Vrot. With her father’s spell books, and the Priests of Kraw, she decides to aid King Ra’Gren, while scheming to free her lover, Gerard, from the hellish Nethers.

Demonic love, valiant battles, and foolhardy heroics await readers in this continuation of the epic trilogy that was written in a Texas prison cell by M. R. Mathias...

In support of the July 4, 2011 publication of M.R. Mathias’ “Kings, Queens, Heroes & Fools”, the second installment in The Wardstone Trilogy after “The Sword & the Dragon”, M.R. Mathias is giving away an AMAZON KINDLE!!! In addition to the Kindle—the “Indie Kindy”—the winner will also receive FREE Smashwords Coupons for M.R. Mathias’s entire bibliography, which includes the following titles:

• Kings, Queens, Heroes, & Fools
• The Sword & the Dragon
• The First Dragoneer novella
• The Royal Dragoneers
• The Adventurion
• The King of Fools (and other Fantasy Tales)
• Crimzon & Clover 1
• Crimzon & Clover 2
• Superhero
• Oathbreaker (a Faery Tale)

Not only that, but the winner will also receive FREE Smashwords Coupons from some of M.R. Mathias’s favorite independent authors! These titles include the following:

• Erich’s Plea, Ursula’s Quest and Slade’s Destiny by Tracey Alley
• Top Ten and The Donzerly Light by Ryne Douglas Pearson
• Union of Renegades, The Goddess Queen, Judgment Rising and The Borderlands of Power by Tracy Falbe
• The Kinshield Legacy by K.C. May
• The Ant-Man of Malfen, Thanatos Rising and The Resurrection of Deacon Shader by Derek Prior
• In Her Name (Omnibus Edition) by Michael R. Hicks
• The Butcher’s Boy by Michael Robb

To enter, please send an email to fbcgiveaway@gmail.com with your Name, Mailing Address (Street Addresses Only), and the subject: INDIE KINDY. Giveaway ends on Monday, July 4, 2011 – 11:59AM PST and is open to Anyone. Thank you for entering and Good Luck!

GIVEAWAY RULES:

1) Open To Anyone

2) Only One Entry Per Household (Multiple Entries Will Be Disqualified)

3) Must Enter Valid Email Address, Name + Mailing Address (Street Addresses Only)

4) No Purchase Necessary

5) Giveaway Will End July 4, 2011 – 11:59AM PST

6) Winner Will Be Randomly Selected and Notified By Email

7) Personal Information Will Only Be Used In Mailing Out the Prizes to the Winner

PRESS RELEASE: The Terry Pratchett Anywhere But Here, Anywhen But Now Prize Winners Announced!

Sir Terry Pratchett and Transworld Publishers launched a new award for aspiring debut novelists in June last year, the Terry Pratchett Anywhere But Here, Anywhen But Now Prize. After the December 31, 2010 deadline for submissions, 500-plus entries were received for the £20,000 prize.

The six judges—including Sir Terry Pratchett and Tony Robinson—met yesterday at Waterstone’s flagship store in London’s Piccadilly to thrash out a winner. After hours of debate the conclusion was reached that it was impossible to select a single victor! The entries were so diverse that it was unanimously decided to split the prize and award it to David Logan for his book Half Sick of Shadows and to Michael Logan (no relation!) for Apocalypse Cow. Both writers will receive a publishing contract from Transworld.

“It was a long deliberation and although to some it might seem a cop out to split a prize, we decided that since the existence of the prize was to find new talent then this was the happiest decision to make. Half Sick of Shadows and Apocalypse Cow both stood out in their different ways and I wish their creators the best of luck in their writing careers.” ~Sir Terry Pratchett

THE WINNERS:

Half Sick of Shadows is a darkly atmospheric, richly written coming-of-age novel in the spirit of Iain Banks’ The Wasp Factory. David Logan, who lives in Carrickfergus, N. Ireland, commented: “I am disappointed for the runners up. The difference between winning and losing is a hair’s breadth. I just feel very lucky.”

Apocalypse Cow follows the story of a group of social misfits thrown together after an experimental bio-weapon is accidentally unleashed by the government, with peculiar repercussions for Britain’s farm animals. The Scots-born but Kenya-based Michael Logan commented:

“Ever since I wrote my first short story at the age of eight, it has been my dream to become an author—although the idea for a novel about sex-crazed zombie cows did come a little later. The full impact of attaining a lifelong goal has yet to fully sink in. I'm sure it will hit me on the way home, when I will bemuse all around me by performing a victorious knee-slide across the concourse at Gatwick.”

Sir Terry Pratchett and Transworld Publishers would like to thank everyone who submitted an entry to the prize.