Magic Bites
Is it a good thing or a bad thing to call a book "more enjoyable than it probably should have been?" Magic Bites starts another urban fantasy series. Like most in the genre, it has a tough female lead, lycanthropes, vampires, magic, and has a murder mystery at the core. There are some twists to the usual setup, admittedly. Vampires are puppets run by human caster necromancers (unless they're uncontrolled and basically animals) rather than charming undead themselves. Magic and technology rule in occasional waves of one or the other - such that cars won't run while magic is high and vice versa for magic devices. So while there are some unique elements, the pattern isn't really new. The book is, perhaps, a bit more... gizzly than most and unashamedly goes into the sexual aspects of its big-bad-beasty as well as the whole maulings and murders thing. But I enjoyed the book anyway.
I find myself like Kate as a main character, even though she has little enough in the way of redeeming values. Aside from her unrevealed-but-clearly-powerful magical heritage, she's just about always trying to pick a fight (makes me think of Jhazza, perhaps). She's good with a sword and knows some potent power words. But... while she may have some of Dresden's attitude, she lacks his detective skills, just sort of blundering her way through an investigation. It's a little difficult for me to actually see why anyone would want to befriend her, as her first impulse is generally confrontation, yet there is something there, so... go figure.
While reading the book, I did find myself a little offended at conventions of the genre. Urban fantasy books (based on what I've found, at least) usually seem to have a female lead and relegate any other females to either 1) a villainess who usually dies or 2) terciary characters (like the female friend who the protagonists talks to or calls maybe once or twice a book, or a female were-critter pack member who's in the background, or a hot chick assistant to a dangerous vampire/underworld boss type). It's almost like the genre requires a female lead to be surrounded by potential male mates and to avoid any other females who might "challenge" her place.
This makes me appreciate the Dresden Files more, as it seems relatively fair in that respect. Harry shares spotlight time with Murphy, Michael, Molly, Thomas, Butters, and others over the course of his stories. There doesn't seem any "harem" element there.
I find myself like Kate as a main character, even though she has little enough in the way of redeeming values. Aside from her unrevealed-but-clearly-powerful magical heritage, she's just about always trying to pick a fight (makes me think of Jhazza, perhaps). She's good with a sword and knows some potent power words. But... while she may have some of Dresden's attitude, she lacks his detective skills, just sort of blundering her way through an investigation. It's a little difficult for me to actually see why anyone would want to befriend her, as her first impulse is generally confrontation, yet there is something there, so... go figure.
While reading the book, I did find myself a little offended at conventions of the genre. Urban fantasy books (based on what I've found, at least) usually seem to have a female lead and relegate any other females to either 1) a villainess who usually dies or 2) terciary characters (like the female friend who the protagonists talks to or calls maybe once or twice a book, or a female were-critter pack member who's in the background, or a hot chick assistant to a dangerous vampire/underworld boss type). It's almost like the genre requires a female lead to be surrounded by potential male mates and to avoid any other females who might "challenge" her place.
This makes me appreciate the Dresden Files more, as it seems relatively fair in that respect. Harry shares spotlight time with Murphy, Michael, Molly, Thomas, Butters, and others over the course of his stories. There doesn't seem any "harem" element there.
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