Wednesday, February 15, 2017

A Hollow Beginning

I was lucky enough to be at the top of the reserve list when Kim Harrison's prequel to The Hollows hit, meaning I'm one of the many who have now experienced The Turn.

For those who have never read The Hollows, this is likely not the place to start reading it, as the only human viewpoint character doesn't really get exposed to the Inderlanders until about 2/3 of the way through, which would likely confuse newbies trying to figure out what's going on with all the supernatural races running around.

Anyway, The Turn is set well before Dead Witch Walking, in the mid 1960's. We start with the graduation from Harvard of Dr. Trisk Cambri and Dr. Trenton Kalamak. Both are Elves, and both hate each other. (Trent is the last of his line, whereas Trisk is a "Dark Elf" with hardier genetics.) We learn that Elves in the 1960's either work in genetics or security, trying to fix the genetic curse leveled on them by the Demons and protecting their own masquerade.

Trisk and Trent used a similar doctoral thesis, in her case using viruses to insert genetic repairs, while he relied on bacterium. They also hate each other. Trisk is further hampered by the Elven predjudices of th etime mirroring that of the Human population, wherein a woman is going to wind up shuffling papers in a lab for old men. `

Trisk ends up on the West Coast working in a Human lab, the idea being that any major genetic discoveries can be passed on to the Elven Enclave. (There's a bit of alternate history here, since one point revolves around developing bioweapons that don't kill after a really ugly Cuban bio crisis.) Trisk develops the T4 Angel Tomato, which is a miracle crop able to grow in almost any environment. Her partner at the lab, Dr. Plank, develops a virus designed to make people sick for 24 hours rather than kill them.

As it turns out, other Inderland species have an interest in the research, leading to a Vampire supervisor and a Witch investor. Who in turn (along with the Were [Colonel Wolfe] and Sa'han Ulbrine) send Kal in to double check her research. Kal is accompanied by his Pixy friend Orchid, who is nowhere near as salty as Jenks in in the original series. (It should be noted here than Quen, who plays a large role in the main series is also in this one, having been hired by the Kalamaks as security. He's a friend of Trisk, and shows up intermittently in the proceedings.)

When Trisk finds out Kal is coming, assuming the worst (he's going to steal her research), she summons a demon of her grandmother's acquaintance, Algaliarept.

Anyway, to condense down a whole heck of a lot of plot, Trent in a fit of professional jealousy, modifies Plank's virus and makes it able to be hosted by the T4 Angel tomatoes. Which has the accidental side effect of making tomatoes toxic, starting off a world wide plague that eventually kills off 25% of the human population. Which starts off some unforeseen consequences, like the complete obliteration of Detroit following the breaking of the Silence by Witches and Vampires.

Eventually, we wind up in Cincinnati, wherein we see the set up of how the main series begins, but not before we come to realize there really isn't a single nice person in the book. Understandable and relatable, yes. But not a single one of them other than possibly Dr. Plank is motivated by anything other than self interest. From Trisk wanting her name on her own work, to Kal trying to bring glory to his family, to Saladan trying to make money on everything to Piscary starting his power play that eventually causes some mid series drama later on....

This is a really fun read for fans of the main series, as people we sort of know show up throughout the course of this volume. On the other hand, given how involved the main series got over 13 volumes, I ended up pulling up the character list on wikipedia to help me figure out who some of the people were with familiar names.

Thursday, February 9, 2017

High School and other torments

I may have mentioned some of this while discussing Mercedes Lackey in previous posts. However, here we are with the final stand alone book of her rather underappreciated Diana Tregarde Investigations series, Jinx High. (There are two that precede this one, but Burning Water takes forever to get going, and Children of the Night is set about two decades prior to either of the other two novels, and it also takes too damn long to get going. Both are great once you hit the halfway point, but... Diana also shows up in a short story in the collection Werehunter and in a collection of novellas Trio of Sorcery. I guess there are a few .pdfs out there that collect or rework some of it, but yeah.)

I happened to find a copy at a used book store a while back, and grabbed it, since the series has been out of print for a while. (I guess it did get reprinted a few years back, but trying to find the original series prior to those reprints was like looking for hen's teeth. Unless you felt like paying big money for a used copy online.)

Anyway, we'll return to the drama surround this series here in a minute.

We'll start with Diana herself, a romance writer by trade, who also has access to Guardian powers in time of great need, particularly for protecting innocents. This one would appear to be set in the late 80's, since there is a Dan Quayle reference as well as a "Just Say No" moment. Diana had a group of people she worked with during her time at Harvard known as the Spook Squad. Novels #1 and #3 focus on former members of the Squad calling on Diana because something fairly major needs outside help. In Burning Water, it was an Aztec deity trying to make a return. In this one, Larry, AKA Kosmic Kid, has a kid involved with some seriously wonky stuff.

Deke, the child in question, has a sort of girlfriend named Faye, who's quite adept and pulling people into her web with sex and drugs. Faye's mother is institutionalized prior to the start, after having tried to kill Faye. Something's a bit off with Faye, as we note at the outset that she causes a car accident that leaves physically impossible results. Like one kid dead, no drugs in anyone's systems, and everyone but the dead girl buckled in. None of which was the case before the car hit a tree at 70 miles per hour. That Faye, who was driving, seems to have vanished from the car right prior to the crash, also adds to the mystery.

Diana ends up in Jenks, Oklahoma, (just outside Tulsa), after Larry calls her to tell her he's got the distinct feeling someone is out to get his son. (Larry's wife is in Japan on business and essentially out of contact.) Due to the numer of accidents happening in the area, yuppie haven Jenks' Secondary school has picked up the nickname "Jinx High". Diana comes in to help teach the business of writing on behalf of the Honors English teacher.

We as readers get more of the plot a heck of a lot faster than Diana does, and halfway through, we know that Faye is actually her mother in a bodily switch. Actually, Faye goes back a little over 300 years, switching bodies with her daughters every generation, but ya know...

It eventually all works out in a rather nice climax, some of which has to do with not waking up whatever is sleeping under Tulsa. (Theory being there are no tornadoes in that section of Oklahoma because even the other gods don't want to wake it up.) Also, Tannim, the mage from SERRAted Edge and Bedlam's Bard shows up as a student.

Anyrate, After this one, there were no more Diana Tregarde mysteries. For the curious, there evidently was a bunch of real life drama that inspired the rant linked above, and a later follow up. I was actually kind of surprised when she started cowriting the Bedlam's Bard series in the 2000's that the Guardians started showing up again.

Also of note, the plot resembles a similar one from the first season of Buffy: the Vampire Slayer. The book was published first, and based on the rants, didn't sell particularly well. And honestly, the plots go different directions, just using the same or similar plot device.

I'm happy I own this one, even if I prefer her other writing over this particular series. It's still worth checking out, since even at her worst, Lackey's work is more entertaining than many other things. 

Sunday, February 5, 2017

Asaka, grow me a garden

Finished Laura Resnick's Unsympathetic Magic on lunch today, which was odd, since I read the book that comes directly after this one prior to reading this one. (Long story short. The library didn't have this one, but they did have the next one, so I read book 4 while waiting for Amazon to ship me this one.) Anyway, this lead to a minor issues of sort of knowing some of the events that happen in this book prior to reading it.

Esther, our actress narrator, is filming a guest role on The Dirty Thirty, a spin off of her world's Law & Order. In her case, this means she's filming around Mount Morris in Harlem while dressed as a bisexual junkie hooker getting pumped for information from a dirty cop. Her mother is thrilled. Sadly, the gentleman she's filming with gets sick in the middle of filming, and Esther tries following the crew to a place advertising the best fried chicken in Harlem. (Much is made over this, since it seems most restaurants in the neighborhood advertise that they have the best fried chicken in Harlem.)

Since it is Esther, instead of finding the fried chicken place, she instead runs across a black guy with a rapier, demonic gargoyles, and a sick man with a severed hand which isn't bleeding. Understandably freaked out, she tries to get help, which ends up with her getting arrested for solicitation, but not before the gargoyles grab her purse.

Lopez, her ex almost lover bails her out, but Esther gets Max involved in trying to figure out what's going on, which ends up involving a complex plot involving a Bokor, zombies, and half the Petro aspects of the Vodoun pantheon. Oh yes, and a rather large boa constrictor named Napoleon.

Now, while I've never set foot in a hounfour (the ritual space of Vodou, and honestly, I haven't lived anywhere where such a thing would be open for the curious), my love of horror movies did lead me down some rather strange research paths at various point. What she presents here seems to follow most of that research, although as is pointed out, New Orleans Vodou and Haitian Vodou  might share commonalities, but they do have different foci. Plus, given the number of syncretic traditions floating around the Caribbean (all of which are oral traditions), there's a lot to work with. And her presentation of Lopez becoming a cheval (horse, possessed by a loa) for Ogoun reflects some of what I've seen places. (Don't ask. I'd hate to lie.)

(Also, for casual readers, the title is a play on the term sympathetic magic, or the idea that something that belongs to a person [fingernail clipping, hair, etc] forms a link to that person, which can then be used to influence that person. AKA, the magic used in making 'voodoo dolls' or poppets.)

Honestly though, this is a fun and quick read and a welcome break from dystopian societies.