Review: Already Dead by Charlie Huston

Vampire books have gotten a bad wrap of late. I've heard it all. "Oversexed!" they say (as if such a thing were possible). "Under-scary!" "Over exposed!" 


But then a book-- nay a character-- like Joe Pitt comes along and blows that shit out of the water.

BOB Blurb- ( from Amazon) Those stories you hear? The ones about things that only come out at night? Things that feed on blood, feed on us? Got news for you: they’re true. Only it’s not like the movies or old man Stoker’s storybook. It’s worse. Especially if you happen to be one of them. Just ask Joe Pitt.

There’s a shambler on the loose. Some fool who got himself infected with a flesh-eating bacteria is lurching around, trying to munch on folks’ brains. Joe hates shamblers, but he’s still the one who has to deal with them. That’s just the kind of life he has. Except afterlife might be better word.

From the Battery to the Bronx, and from river to river, Manhattan is crawling with Vampyres. Joe is one of them, and he’s not happy about it. Yeah, he gets to be stronger and faster than you, and he’s tough as nails and hard to kill. But spending his nights trying to score a pint of blood to feed the Vyrus that’s eating at him isn’t his idea of a good time. And Joe doesn’t make it any easier on himself. Going his own way, refusing to ally with the Clans that run the undead underside of Manhattan–it ain’t easy. It’s worse once he gets mixed up with the Coalition–the city’s most powerful Clan–and finds himself searching for a poor little rich girl who’s gone missing in Alphabet City.

Now the Coalition and the girl’s high-society parents are breathing down his neck, anarchist Vampyres are pushing him around, and a crazy Vampyre cult is stalking him. No time to complain, though. Got to find that girl and kill that shambler before the whip comes down . . . and before the sun comes up.

This tale is dark and in places brutal, but I devoured it in an evening. If you are a fan of the Sandman Slim series and that type of noir meets paranormal meets punk type book, hie thee to a bookstore.  

Review- Eye of the Tempest by Nicole Peeler

My one word review of Nicole Peeler's Eye of the Tempest- argggggggggggggggghhhhhhhh! But in a good way. 

BOB blurb- Nothing says “home” like being attacked by humans with very large guns, as Jane and Anyan discover when they arrive in Rockabill. These are professionals, brought into kill, and they bring Anyan down before either Jane or the barghest can react. Seeing Anyan fall awakens a terrible power within Jane, and she nearly destroys herself taking out their attackers.

Jane wakes, weeks later, to discover that she’s not the only thing that’s been stirring. Something underneath Rockabill is coming to life: something ancient, something powerful, and something that just might destroy the world.

Jane and her friends must act, striking out on a quest that only Jane can finish. For whatever lurks beneath the Old Sow must be stopped…and Jane’s just the halfling for the job.

This is the forth in the Jane True series and it lives up to it's predecessors. Jane continues to grow and get stronger. She kicks ass, solves problems and well... occasionally pees herself. She continues to be adorable and adorkable and well, I like her plenty. <3  

So why the arrrrgh? Lady Blueballs like whoa. I won't give away any spoilers... but argh! It ain't right to tease a girl like that. WE HAVE NEEDS! 

Also.. in the last book Jane dropped all sorts of Brit-isms. This time, she must be hanging out with more nerds. The geek jokes dropped in here and there are cute and funny. 

Review- Eye of the Tempest by Nicole Peeler

My one word review of Nicole Peeler's Eye of the Tempest- argggggggggggggggghhhhhhhh! But in a good way. 

BOB blurb- Nothing says “home” like being attacked by humans with very large guns, as Jane and Anyan discover when they arrive in Rockabill. These are professionals, brought into kill, and they bring Anyan down before either Jane or the barghest can react. Seeing Anyan fall awakens a terrible power within Jane, and she nearly destroys herself taking out their attackers.

Jane wakes, weeks later, to discover that she’s not the only thing that’s been stirring. Something underneath Rockabill is coming to life: something ancient, something powerful, and something that just might destroy the world.

Jane and her friends must act, striking out on a quest that only Jane can finish. For whatever lurks beneath the Old Sow must be stopped…and Jane’s just the halfling for the job.

This is the forth in the Jane True series and it lives up to it's predecessors. Jane continues to grow and get stronger. She kicks ass, solves problems and well... occasionally pees herself. She continues to be adorable and adorkable and well, I like her plenty. <3  

So why the arrrrgh? Lady Blueballs like whoa. I won't give away any spoilers... but argh! It ain't right to tease a girl like that. WE HAVE NEEDS! 

Also.. in the last book Jane dropped all sorts of Brit-isms. This time, she must be hanging out with more nerds. The geek jokes dropped in here and there are cute and funny. 

Review: Don't Bite The Messenger by Regan Summers

Don't Bite The Messenger 

BOB Blurb- Anchorage, Alaska

The vampire population may have created an economic boom in Alaska, but their altered energy field fries most technology. They rely on hard-living—and short-lived—couriers to get business done...couriers like Sydney Kildare.

Sydney has survived to the ripe old age of twenty-six by being careful. She's careful when navigating her tempestuous clients, outrunning hijackers and avoiding anyone who might distract her from her plan of retiring young to a tropical, vampire-free island.

Her attitude—and immunity to vampires' allure—have made her the target of a faction of vampires trying to reclaim their territory. Her only ally is Malcolm Kelly, a secretive charmer with the uncanny habit of showing up whenever she's in trouble. Caught in the middle of a vampire turf war, Sydney has to count on Malcolm to help her survive, or the only place she'll retire is her grave...

One Word Review: MOAR! 

Summers does a great job of introducing a character and the plot is tight and well crafted. BUT MOAR MOAR MOAR! I found myself wanting more of everything: worldbuilding, characterization, everything. It was like you could see that it was all there, at the corner of your eye, but when you turned your head it was gone. 

One place the story doesn't lack is action. As a connoisseur of well written violence, I was pleased to see that Don't Bite The Messenger delivers on that front without fail. The action sequences are realistic (to a point. I mean..... vampires!) and sufficiently brutal. 

The sex is good (MOAR) and while I didn't really feel like I knew much about the Male MC I was happy to see Syd (the female MC) get down with him.

I think this could be the start of a series, and I'd be very happy to see that. I hope very much that she expands on this world where vampires roam freely in society. 

All in all a worthwhile read, and hopefully, just our first taste of Ms. Summers' world.

(Book provided by NetGalley. And Regan is a friend, but I try to be as objective as possible.) 

Review- Aloha From Hell by Richard Kadrey

Order Aloha From Hell

Amazon Book Blurb--

In Sandman Slim Stark came back from hell for revenge.
In Kill the Dead he tackled both a zombie plague and being Lucifer’s bodyguard.
Once again all is not right in L.A. Lucifer is back in Heaven, God is on vacation, and an insane killer mounts a war against both Heaven and Hell.
Stark’s got to head back down to his old stomping grounds in Hell to rescue his long lost love, stop an insane serial killer, prevent both Good and Evil from completely destroying each other, and stop the demonic Kissi from ruining the party for everyone.
Even for Sandman Slim, that’s a tall order. And it’s only the beginning.

It is no secret that I love the Sandman Slim series and may have a tiny writer crush on Mr. Kadrey. (It isn't blind love. While I liked Butcher Bird, it wasn't great and I had serious issues with a few things.)

That said... I LOVED Aloha. Stark grows up quite a bit in this novel, going from being a 19 year old kid in a 30-something body that hungers only for bloody vengeance to something that approaches a real man. The relationships get a little deeper and you don't feel like he's just living on the rebound of all the crap that has happened to him any more.

While I saw first two "twists" coming from 1000 miles away. ( I hate reviews with spoilers, so I won't say more) The last two caught me off guard. I'm not often surprised, or if I am it tends to leave me with the crappy.. "Well, you just pulled that out of you ass" kind of feeling. These didn't come off that way. The twists were surprising, but fit seamlessly with the world building and characters.

So, if you haven't read them Go ahead and pick up Sandman Slim. If you have... feel free to share your opinion in the comments!

Review- Tome of the Undergates by Sam Sykes

Okay, my opinion of all sorts of epic/traditional fantasy is well documented. I don't like it. BUT my tendency to be as changeable as the weather. As a woman I reserve this right.

Pay attention authors.

I NEVER would have picked up Tome of the Undergates. NEVER. The name is pretentious. The cover art? Well, it's a guy with a sword, innit? And it ain't even a samurai sword and there ain't even a hint of fine man-titty anywhere.

Buy Here

But when I followed Sam Sykes on twitter (@SamSykesSwears) he sent me a DM complimenting this here blog. Well, then we were friends, weren't we? (I'm allowed my delusions). Then the book got nominated for a few awards ( the Compton-Crook and the Gemmell). These things-- plus my utter suck-a-tude at picking books of late *grumble grumble* convinced me.

So, yeah. I went ahead and bought the book.

And *surprise!* I liked it.

Publisher's Copy-
Lenk can barely keep control of his mismatched adventurer band at the best of times (Gariath the dragon man sees humans as little more than prey, Kataria the Shict despises most humans, and the humans in the band are little better). When they're not insulting each other's religions they're arguing about pay and conditions. So when the ship they are travelling on is attacked by pirates things don't go very well. They go a whole lot worse when an invincible demon joins the fray. The demon steals the Tome of the Undergates - a manuscript that contains all you need to open the undergates. And whichever god you believe in you don't want the undergates open. On the other side are countless more invincible demons, the manifestation of all the evil of the gods, and they want out.

At the start, violence gets most of the attention in this book. That's good. I likes violence. But the most interesting part of the book is all the loathing. Though the publisher (and most everyone else) seems to focus on the enmity between our merry band of adventures, it was all the self loathing that interested me. The race-traitor, the one hiding behind faith, the PTSD-esque survivor's guilt,  the one for whom everything is wrong. It is this self loathing that drives the characters to do the crazy things they do.

In perusing other reviews (actually I didn't. I went looking for the BOB copy and stumbled on another review) I noticed a lament that the characters don't grow or change. I disagree-- I mean I agree, but...


BUT the feeling I get is that the characters have been living with this self hatred inside them like an abscess. In book one we get to watch many of these characters lance the boil and bleed out (at least some) of the infection.


Okay-- that's way heavier than I ever wanted to be.


If you aren't looking for philosophy- Tome is still fun. It still has the violence in spades, there are plenty of fart jokes and the writing is good. No smex. (wah wah wah) But maybe the most erotic sweat drop ever written.


Not a perfect book, but a lot of fun and so much better than the previous 2 crap books that I bought and hated*. Worth a read and I look forward to picking up Black Halo (book 2).



*Okay, 1 I hated and 1 that was so soul crushingly disappointing that I wanted to cry.