Werewolves in the West
So, I've not given up my ravenous devouring of novels during night-shift weeks, by any means. The last few books gone by have all involved werewolves...
First up was Dead Iron, which involved more than just werewolves, at least, though one of the main characters is one. It's set in a steampunk frontier town that's heavier on the gadgetry than I usually see (goggles linked to weapons? Smartlinks?) and magic to boot, with witches, undead, at least a couple variants of fae-like beings, and "glim" - a substance harvested by airships at high altitude that seems to contain some magical energy that can do several things, including powering and granting a limited intelligence to clockworks. That's a lot. The ideas are pretty cool and work reasonably well together. What doesn't so far as I'm concerned is the scattered viewpoints. The point of view alternates between something like five different characters, including the primary villain, and that detracts from the story for me. The characters themselves aren't bad, but I wish there were a tighter focus throughout.
The ending has several of them grouped together to travel. With the quasi-family dynamics, the whole thing has the feeling of setting up for a series... or fitting the mold of an RPG adventure/campaign. That's always interesting to see, but I'm not sure if it's something I'd follow.
I've also been following the Kitty Norville series I started a few weeks ago. In book one, she sets up her radio show, breaks away from her pack, and is revealed as a werewolf. In book two (Kitty Goes to Washington), she's summoned to Washington D.C. as part of a Congressional hearing on werewolves and vampires. In book three (Kitty Takes a Holiday), she retreats from public life, hanging out in a region that would be considered "local" to me and mentoring a new werewolf. In book four (Kitty and the Silver Bullet), she's pulled back to Denver, confronting her old pack. Naturally, there's trouble along the way at each step.
The character's grown on me. While she's still not the sort to seek out confrontation, she's definitely not the submissive pup she started as. So that's a plus. And I can be a little envious of how this fictional character has taken control of her life. Most of the other characters work well, though in book two a cult leader is dispatched way too quickly after all the buildup and the religious zealot Senator is way more sloppy than any professional politician should ever be, making him too simple an enemy.
I like the depictions of the supernatural here in general. Lycanthropy and vampirism are medically identifiable and being studied, but aren't fully understood. There's a lot of talk about reconciling the human versus the not, particularly with wolf instincts and mannerisms. There's even insight into police trying to adapt to a world where things like vampires are publically acknowledged reality, and the supernatural tend to "clean up" their own problems - it makes vampire families and werewolf packs rather like gangs or mobsters, only they can hypnotize and dismember humans easily. I hope to see more development in how society tries to deal with that.
If anything, I could perhaps wish the novels were a little longer and meatier, but they've covered their events pretty well and shouldn't be fluffed up just for increased page count.
First up was Dead Iron, which involved more than just werewolves, at least, though one of the main characters is one. It's set in a steampunk frontier town that's heavier on the gadgetry than I usually see (goggles linked to weapons? Smartlinks?) and magic to boot, with witches, undead, at least a couple variants of fae-like beings, and "glim" - a substance harvested by airships at high altitude that seems to contain some magical energy that can do several things, including powering and granting a limited intelligence to clockworks. That's a lot. The ideas are pretty cool and work reasonably well together. What doesn't so far as I'm concerned is the scattered viewpoints. The point of view alternates between something like five different characters, including the primary villain, and that detracts from the story for me. The characters themselves aren't bad, but I wish there were a tighter focus throughout.
The ending has several of them grouped together to travel. With the quasi-family dynamics, the whole thing has the feeling of setting up for a series... or fitting the mold of an RPG adventure/campaign. That's always interesting to see, but I'm not sure if it's something I'd follow.
I've also been following the Kitty Norville series I started a few weeks ago. In book one, she sets up her radio show, breaks away from her pack, and is revealed as a werewolf. In book two (Kitty Goes to Washington), she's summoned to Washington D.C. as part of a Congressional hearing on werewolves and vampires. In book three (Kitty Takes a Holiday), she retreats from public life, hanging out in a region that would be considered "local" to me and mentoring a new werewolf. In book four (Kitty and the Silver Bullet), she's pulled back to Denver, confronting her old pack. Naturally, there's trouble along the way at each step.
The character's grown on me. While she's still not the sort to seek out confrontation, she's definitely not the submissive pup she started as. So that's a plus. And I can be a little envious of how this fictional character has taken control of her life. Most of the other characters work well, though in book two a cult leader is dispatched way too quickly after all the buildup and the religious zealot Senator is way more sloppy than any professional politician should ever be, making him too simple an enemy.
I like the depictions of the supernatural here in general. Lycanthropy and vampirism are medically identifiable and being studied, but aren't fully understood. There's a lot of talk about reconciling the human versus the not, particularly with wolf instincts and mannerisms. There's even insight into police trying to adapt to a world where things like vampires are publically acknowledged reality, and the supernatural tend to "clean up" their own problems - it makes vampire families and werewolf packs rather like gangs or mobsters, only they can hypnotize and dismember humans easily. I hope to see more development in how society tries to deal with that.
If anything, I could perhaps wish the novels were a little longer and meatier, but they've covered their events pretty well and shouldn't be fluffed up just for increased page count.
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