Fire Touched by Patricia Briggs

This story begins when Mercy and the werewolves and Joel get called out to fight a bridge troll. What's not to like here? I mean bridge...troll...rollicking battle...good times.

After the smoke clears, it becomes apparent that a small group of the Fae are trying to reestablish their hold on the area, after years of peace.

Zee and Tad show up, having escaped from a Fae dungeon with a changeling child in tow, called Aiden. His stay in the Underhill has changed him, giving him a unique relationship with the element of Fire. Mercy offers him the sanctuary of the pack, which triggers a bit of a power struggle with Adam's people, and sets the pack up in opposition to the power hungry Fae.

But Mercy aligns herself with another faction, and they undertake a dangerous mission into the land of Faerie to recover an artifact which is the price of peace.

There's some good tie-ins here with some of the short stories in Shifting Shadows, and Mercy's powers are getting a bit stronger with every novel in the series. Fun to see where Briggs is going with this.

Shifting Shadows by Patricia Briggs

 For a number of years now, we've all gotten to see things from Mercy Thompson's point of view, or even Charles and Anna's, in Briggs' world, but this collection of shorts gives us the opportunity to get to know some of her "minor" characters a bit better, too.

Briggs tells us the story of how Samuel and Ariana met and fell in love, which includes a good bit of backstory on the origins of the Marrock, as well. We get the tale of how a Chinese vampire rescues a fairy princess from a group of jealous rival lesser fae, and how a Chicago vampire learns to live with the ghost of the husband she slew when she first awoke, hungry and mindless.

We experience the meeting of Tom the werewolf and Moira the witch (does it seem like there's a lot of cross species mating going on these days?) and tag along as they rescue Tom's brother from Moira's father's coven. There is, of course, the obligatory Charles and Anna short, and a ghost-hunting tale about Mercy that takes place after Night Broken., plus out takes from that  story and Silver Borne.

There are others, too, all delightful, and easy to finish in delicious bites that won't keep you up all night trying to finish another Briggs novel.

Enjoy!

Dead Heat by Patricia Briggs

 This must be a lucky post...I have previously written thirteen reviews of Briggs' novels, so this breaks that unlucky total...phew!

As an effectively immortal shape shifter, Charles is cautious in the attachments he forms with mortal humans; it's painful to see friends die while you remain young. Come to think of it, it's painful to watch friends die when you age right along with them, too. But that's beside the point. Charles has formed few mortal friendships in his lifetime, but his longest lasting friend, a Navajo horse breeder named Joseph, is dying, so he and Anna take a trip to Arizona to, in effect, say "goodbye" to his old friend, while Anna is meeting Joseph and his family for the first time.

It's a "blended" family. Joseph's father, Hosteen, is a werewolf, who is angry that his son has never let Charles or himself "turn" him, so he would live longer. And it turns out that Joseph's daughter-in-law, Chelsea, is a witch, at least by blood, though she has never studied the art to become a practitioner. Anna and Charles' trip also serves a second purpose. Charles wants to buy Anna something special for her birthday, and hopes to buy one of the Arabians which the family breed, show and sell. So, the "meat" of the plot gets seasoned with little interludes of them trying out riding horses, discussing horse breeding and the market for show horses.

Shortly after they arrive, Chelsea is attacked by a fae spell which forces her to attack her children. She resists in the only way possible, by attacking herself instead, and by the time help arrives in the form of our favorite couple, she is so close to death that the only way to save her is to "turn" her into a werewolf, as well. This causes all kinds of fun new challenges within the family dynamics, and some opportunity for Anna to shine with her calming Omega powers.

When the immediate danger is over, Charles and Anna team up with a pair of Cantrip investigators, plus their old friend, FBI agent Leslie Fisher, to hunt down the fae who attacked Chelsea, and who has been abducting children and killing them since nearly the beginning of recorded history. Lots of good action and adventure. Another worthy episode in the Alpha and Omega books.

This one kept me up past my bedtime several nights in a row. Had to force myself to put it down to accommodate an early morning work schedule the first two, but finally succumbed to temptation and finished it off late last night.

The Hob's Bargain by Patricia Briggs

Aren has finally shed her spinsterhood by marrying a much younger man, Daryn, When she sees a vision of disaster in the near future, but because mages are either enslaved by the powerful blood mages, or put to death - and definitely frowned upon by the normal villagers, she makes a bad decision not to warn him. When bandits come and kill him and the rest of her family as they work the fields later that day, she is able to hide in the cellar until they have finished ransacking the house. When the villagers arrive bearing the body of her husband, she decides to "out" herself to deliver a warning about what is coming.

At the same time as the bandit attack, there is also "a disturbance in The Force", where all sorts of magical bindings are dispelled, and huge earthquakes cause mountains to collapse, blocking most of the roads out of the village.

I've seen this plot beginning before, in one variation or another...bereft young woman leaves home and family, or loses home and family, to venture out into the wide world to discover her gifts, from Fawn in Bujold's Sharing Knife series to Paksennarion in Moon's chronicles.

The problem with this story is that it is painfully slow starting, with a mostly pointless scene where the Fallbrook village elders yammer and decide nothing and pages of Aren cowering in the basement dealing with her grief for a week. Eventually she sets of with Kith, a crippled ex-soldier, and Wandel, the harper on an expedition towards the mountain called The Hob, trying find out if there are any survivors from the next village over, Auberg, which was flooded after the earthquake blocked the river flowing through the valley.

Regular fantasy readers can probably figure out that, given the title of the book and the logic of magic realms, there is actually a hob on The Hob, and our intrepid heroine is likely to make a bargain with him. When Fallbrook is on the verge of being overrun by the bandits at last, Aren makes a solo trip to the mountain and brings back the hob who dwells there (the mountain is sentient, by the way) to help the villagers in their struggle. Of course, bargaining with a hob may be a bit like dealing with the devil, so...

The pace continues to be slow, as the villagers and the bandits have minor skirmishes, and the hob, CaerFaun, teaches Aren steadily how to use her magical abilities, which not only are good for visions, but allow her to communicate with the recently released spirits and other magic creatures, and control some of them to an extent. In the long haul, the Hob's Bargain turns out to be a win-win-win situation, for the hob, the villagers, and for Aren herself.

Night Broken by Patricia Briggs

I knew this novel was going to be too short when I saw the page count (250) on my Nook as the story began. Ah well, I suppose it was exactly the number of words that needed to be written to tell the tale that must be told.

Mercy gets an unpleasant surprise when Adam's ex-wife, Christy, is fleeing from a former lover turned violent stalker and calls Adam for help. His sense of responsibility for his "pack" as alpha wolf forces him to let her seek refuge in the home which now belongs to him and Mercy. You can probably see that this is going to lead to fireworks, perhaps literal, from the moment it begins.

But Christy's stalker turns out to be far more dangerous than anticipated, and we get the first indication when the townhouse where she lived burns to the ground, killing four innocent bystanders.

About this time, one of the elven Grey Lords shows up at Adam and Mercy's, looking for his father's walking stick, which Mercy gave to Coyote to keep, after she used it to kill the river monster a couple of books ago. He threatens all sorts of dire consequences, oh so politely, as the fae are known to do things, if she fails to turn it over within a week.

Mercy begins trying to get in touch with Coyote - not something any sane person wants to do - and ends up in jail. Well, not that way, but she visits a "half-brother" of hers, Gary LaughingDog, where he's being held for stealing a police car and a case of expensive scotch, and asks him if he knows how to contact Coyote. Shortly after her visit, Gary has a vision of disaster unfolding and breaks out of lockup to warn Mercy, Adam and the pack.

When Christy's stalker turns up at Mercy's garage and demands that she be given back to him, our favorite shape shifter finds out that he's not even close to being human, and is an immensely powerful bad guy - Guayota. With a little help from Adam and Tad (half fae son of the Dark Smith), she manages to drive him off and kill one of his minions, but it's obvious to all concerned that they're going to have to deal with him more permanently at some point.

All of which, of course, leads up to a big battle scene at the end of the book, and some new possibilities forming for the overall plot arc.

Too short. More, please, for Mercy's sake!

Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs

Sometimes, it seems like Mercy can't go anywhere without getting into trouble. She and her mate, Adam's daughter, Jessie, decide to go out after Thanksgiving dinner for a little Black Friday shopping, and get more trouble than they bargained for. Mercy suffers a panic attack for no apparent reason (it comes to me later that it's triggered by her psychic tie with Adam), and when they have the tow truck driver drop her and Jessie at the garage, they find Gabriel and Ben have taken refuge there from a group of rogue Cantrip agents who have taken most of Adam's pack into custody.

The Cantrip deserters want Adam to assassinate for them a senator who does not agree with their agenda, and they need all the leverage they can get to force him to their will. It's obvious that there would be no better leverage than to capture Mercy and Jessie, so it is essential that they stay out of the agents' clutches. But Warren's partner, Kyle, is already being held hostage and interrogated to find out where the "girls" might hide, so Mercy sends Jessie and Gabriel off to stay with Gabriels family, and asks her half-fae friend, Tad (Zee's son) to watch over them, then she and Ben set off to free Kyle and interrogate the hostage takers. To help, she recruits the vampire, Stefan, and together they are more than a match for a handful of humans.

Mercy, who is in some strange metaphysical or metaphorical way the daughter of the Amerindian god, Coyote, gains some interesting new powers in this novel. Her mixture of using Indian magic with Christian symbols for banishing ghosts seems like a new thing in urban fantasy, unless you count Anita Blake mixing her crosses and necromantic powers, I suppose. So, the bad guys are poisoning the werewolves with silver to keep them weak, and Adam is using his alpha magic to absorb the silver into his own body. When Mercy spirit walks to be with Adam, she ends up "eating" a large quantity of silver, thereby taking it away from Adam and the pack, and giving her nothing more than an upset stomach and a few minor side effects, hardly debilitating.

When the rogue agents betray a band of mercenaries they hired to help kidnap the pack members, the mercenaries make it easy for Adam and his wolves to escape and take vengeance on their captors. But that's not the end of the story, as the money and power behind the Cantrip people belongs to a powerful vampire, who wants control of the entire country, and a return to the time when vampires were at the top of the food pyramid. So Mercy and her friends have to fight one last supernatural battle to decide the fate of America.

Good action, an interesting plot, and some neat new skills for Mercy.

Fair Game by Patricia Briggs

The Marrock's enforcer, Charles, has begun to experience some serious problems because of the frequency with which he is being dispatched to execute werewolves who have committed crimes against normal humans since the weres have outed themselves. His wife, and pack Omega, is distraught, and appeals to Bran to do something about it. When a request from the FBI for help on a serial killer case comes to him, he hopes that sending Charles and Anna as consultants will at the very least distract his enforcer long enough for him to get a handle on his ghosts.

They journey to the East Coast and meet with representatives of the FBI, Homeland Security and a secretive government group known as Cantrip. They are briefed in on the killer's victims and methods, and soon suspect that he or she may have some supernatural aid, as werewolves are also being killed, and the most recent person kidnapped has Fae blood. Charles and Anna enlist the aid of the local pack, and consult with two of its most powerful witches to track the killer, who appears to be using black ritual magic to drain power from his victims.

A great deal of this novel is spent on Charles and Anna's relationship, their mystical bonds, and how Charles' guilt and perhaps even some actual haunting by the spirits of those he has slain is affecting him and the two of them. It also makes some progress in the overall plotting of Briggs' books in advancing the cooperation and communication between the human government agencies and the pack, and in a twist at the end introduces a new crisis between humans and Fae.

Fun reading, not terribly deep, with plenty of good action when the killer and minions are caught and battled.

Wolfsbane by Patricia Briggs

Wolfsbane is the second book in the stories of Aralorn, and it really doesn't break much new ground. As I mentioned in my review of Masques, there's a Bond-ian flaw in the stories, and it appears at first that Aralorn and Wolf have made a stereotypical Blofeld-esque mistake, leaving a live enemy behind them. When they faced down ae'Magi Geoffrey, the left him without his magic facing a horde of malignant creatures that he'd formerly been able to control, assuming that he would be torn apart without either of our heroes bloodying their own hands.

Aralorn learns that her father, the Lyon of Lambshold, has died, and so she travels with Wolf to the old family keep to pay her last respects. Her relationship with her family has been strained over the years, as she was an illegitimate child of her father's shapeshifter lover, and some of her brothers are uncomfortable with her powers. For them moment, most of that is set aside while they are mourning.

It turns out that her father is not actually dead, but has been captured in a spell that simulates death. It's too complex for Wolf to unravel by himself, and so they seek help first from Aralorn's shapeshifter uncle, then from a local priestess of death, and finally from the current ae'Magi. As they dig into things further, they come to believe that it may be Geoffrey's spirit - a dreamwalker - influencing the living to perform the spell that threatens the Lyon.

The whole plot appears to be designed to draw Aralorn and Cain (Wolf) to a place where they can be captured for Geoffrey again. In some ways the book is more about relationships than about defeating the dead wizard's evil plans. Aralorn and Wolf become more deeply involved and committed to one another, and Aralorn's relationships with her mother, brothers and sister look like they might be restored. Again, not Briggs' best work, but it's good clean fun.

Masques by Patricia Briggs

I believe that Masques was Briggs first novel, and evidently it was adequate to get her published, so she could follow up eventually with Mercy Thompson and friends. This book is mostly just classic fantasy, complete with an evil wizard, a plucky female lead, and her faithful shapeshifting wolf companion.

Aralorn, runaway daughter of a minor noble, is a shapeshifter and a spy for Ren, the spymaster of Sianim. Her assignment is to find out what she can at the court of the ae'Magi (archmage) Geoffrey, a well-beloved man who seems to have the magical situation in the land well under control. While she is there, she finds that Geoffrey is not the angelic figure he pretends to be, but that he is guilty of using black magic, fueled by pain, blood and death, to consolidate his power and influence.

There is a branch of the royal family that is immune to magic whom he is unable to influence with his charismatic spells, and Aralorn makes contact with the heir of that family, Myr, while she is spying at the court of the ae'Magi. When Geoffrey plots to capture or kill Myr, Aralorn goes AWOL from her next assignment to join his loyalists hiding in the mountains where Geoffrey's magic doesn't reach.

Sometime much earlier, Aralorn rescued a wolf from a pit trap who was actually a shapeshifter. Wolf has been her somewhat constant companion ever since, and he also is part of the resistance to the ae'Magi. Wolf has a more personal reason, though, as he is really Cain, the ae'Magi's son, who fled after being accused of working black magic. He had actually done so, under his father's tutelage, but had come to regret his evil ways and fled from his father's control.

The quest is relatively straightforward - kill Geoffrey and free the kingdom from his evil. The main problem with this novel, in my opinion, is that Geoffrey suffers from the same conceit as the Bond villains, he wants to gloat over his victims rather than just killing them quickly. This gives Aralorn just enough opportunities to escape him so that she can defeat him in the end. A good first effort by Briggs, but she's written much better.

River Marked by Patricia Briggs

The latest installment in the Mercy Thompson series was worth waiting for. As the novel begins, Mercy is getting serious wedding jitters, about the planning, not so much about being married to Adam. After they tie the knot, it's all good, and they head off with a monster RV on a honeymoon.

This is where it gets especially fun for some of us readers. Get your minds out of the gutter, people, Briggs doesn't get all graphic about the honeymoon, but if you're from the Northwest, you'll recognize the area where they choose to spend their time. It's in the Columbia River gorge, near the Dalles, and a place called Maryhill.

I've spent a lot of time traveling in that area, and have been to the Maryhill museum which she describes quite well, have visited the replica of Stonehenge nearby, which also plays a part in the story, so I was really able to visualize what was happening there above and beyond the descriptions Briggs provides.

Mercy and Adam run afoul of a monster out of Indian legends on the Columbia River, and join forces with some other "walkers" a shaman or two, a few ghosts and even a demigod or two in this tale. The monster has been eating people all up and down the river, and growing in size and power. The fae are peripherally involved, as they have resettled some otterkin (akin to kelpies) in the area where the monster lives, and the otterkin are apparently in league with the "river devil".

There's a lot of relationship development between Mercy and Adam in this installment, too. They learn how to work together more effectively, and begin to define the boundaries of their roles as husband and wife, which is entertaining as they're both seriously alpha material. Love conquers nearly all, in the end.

A skillful blend of ancient legend and modern trappings make this a truly enjoyable tale. If you're one of those folks who likes to peek at the last page or two of a book before you start, I'm warning you not to. You'll be seriously upset and worried, and won't truly be able to enjoy this fine bit of fun.

On the Prowl by Patricia Briggs, et al

These little anthologies some of the urban fantasy publishers are putting out are quite nice in one way - they let you get a sampling of some lesser known authors with the "hook" of a new work by an established writer. I discovered Tom Sniegowski that way just recently, but now that I've found him, I've found it hard to find more of him, so to speak.

This anthology led off with Alpha and Omega, by Briggs, which I'd already read as a stand-alone, so I skipped on to the next story as soon as I realized what was going on. You can read my review of it on the blog by clicking the link above. It was followed by Inhuman, by Eileen Wilks.

Inhuman seemed a little mysterious to me. I don't know if that was what the author intended, or if I've once again walked in on the middle of an ongoing story. One of the common themes in urban fantasy these days is of "racial" discrimination, and Wilks gives us a taste of one such scenario here. Normal folks are just naturally skeptical and suspicious of anyone who has powers they don't understand, and often indulge in either overt or covert race-baiting and persecution.

Kai, and her two friends Jackie and Ginger, seem to have some paranormal talents that would brand them as "The Other", and so does Kai's friend (it becomes immediately obvious that they're not more than that yet, but will be by the end of the story through some not subtle foreshadowing), Nathan, a county mountie who's only partially out of the proverbial paranormal closet. When bodies start turning up in the neighborhood, the witches are an obvious set of suspects, and when a local barfly testifies that he saw Kai leave the night before with the latest victim, well...

This is a quick read, with a wee bit different slant on beasties and boggins. I especially liked what type of creature Nathan turned out to be; there's some potential there. We'll see if something else by Ms. Wilks turns up in the mailbox one of these days.

Buying Trouble, by Karen Chance was the third bit of fun here. You see, there's this girl named Claire, who works in an auction house. The auction house has a reputation for coming up with very interesting artifacts, sometimes authentic, and ocassionally possessing strange powers. Claire's function, besides prettying things up around the place, is that she is a magical null, and while people are close enough to see and bid on the offerings, they are unable to use magic to steal them, or any other bit of mischief. The non-magic trouble is what you hire big bouncers for.

Claire was very nearly sold as a child slave to a visiting band of elves who wanted her for their own nefarious reasons, but she managed to escape their plans. The elves took it quite badly, killing her father over a bad faith deal gone awry, and she's been avoiding the rest of the clan ever since. Her brother shows up at this auction, having tracked her down, and is hoping to finally make good on his father's bargain, getting power and money for himself in the process.

As much as she distrusts elves, given her history, she finds she has no choice but to band together with one to escape the mayhem that ensues when the bidding gets out of hand. They flee to the land of the Fey, where Claire finds out a bit more than she bargained for about her magical nature and her family history. Good action, worth looking Ms. Chance up for a second round some day.

The Final story, Mona Lisa Betwining, by Sunny, very rapidly was revealed to be pretty much a PNR dressed up as UF. Didn't make it more than a couple of pages before the steamy longings reared their ugly thighs, and not more than twenty before the bodices were ripped with all due tradition and ceremony. I'll pass on more of the same...in my readings anyway.

Mailbox Monday

Can't wait to sink my teeth into this one.

Mailbox Monday

I'm going to call this series of posts Mailbox Monday, as that seems to be the meme. I will say, however, that I most often support my local bookstores, rather than ordering and receiving books by mail. I occasionally receive books by mail from authors to review, or electronically. Even when I buy a book on Tuesday of its release week, when it is available at a special price, though, I'll list it on the following Monday.


I've already read this one at the library, but Law picked it up to complete the series for the collection.





This looks like a fun new anthology. Expect it to appear in the Queue.



Might just be silliness, but you gotta love the title.



Haven't read any Jody Lynn Nye in quite some time.

Short Takes

(1/21/09) Read Rich Like Them, by Ryan D'Agostino. This is a fairly good book of morsels of wisdom from people who have made a ton of money. Lots of food for thought, and I'm savoring it bite by bite.

(1/30/09) Read Paradox, Book 1 of the Nullapeiron trilogy, by John Meaney. Pretty good stuff.

(2/6/09) Read Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs - pretty good stuff.

Silver Borne, by Patricia Briggs

In Silver Borne, Briggs continues the saga of Mercy Thompson, were coyote. One of her friends, Phineas, a part-fae owner of an antiquarian bookstore, has gone missing. Bounty hunters show up at her garage, with a warrant for the arrest of her mate, Alpha of the local werewolf clan, Adam. Someone is messing with the pack bond between herself and Adam, making her do things she wouldn't ordinarily. Also, her werewolf roommate, Samuel, son of the Marrok, has decided he's tired of life and attempts to commit suicide.
It's a mixed blessing that Mercy has so many friends, as on the one hand she feels responsible for all of them, and they can be used as hostages to her good behavior, but on the other hand there are plenty of folks to help out when the going gets tough.
One of the more powerful fae turns out to be behind the kidnapping, and Mercy must first deal with her minions and then the evil fairy herself in order to extract Phin from her clutches. The fae is after an old artifact that belonged to the bookseller, that he loaned to Mercy, and it's not entirely certain whether Mercy will escape the fae herself, much less free Phin.
She and Adam will also have to deal with unrest within the werewolf pack, as some factions want more power and others are offended that Adam has taken a coyote as his mate. As icing on the cake, how do you stop a suicidal werewolf?
My only regret about this book is that I finished it way too quickly. If you've been following Mercy's exploits, don't wait for the paperback, folks.

Alpha and Omega, by Patricia Briggs

This book by Briggs is more or less a prequel to Cry Wolf and Hunting Ground. There's something gone horribly wrong with one of the werewolf packs in Chicago, and the Marrok's son and enforcer, Charles, is sent to investigate and deal with the situation. He meets with Anna at the airport, and goes back to her apartment with her.


Anna is a rare Omega type of werewolf. Omegas are highly valued because they reduce the amount of aggression in a pack by their mere presence. Alphas are not as likely to fight each other to the death in dominance battles, and newly-made werewolves are more likely to survive their first violent days of conversion when an Omega is nearby.

Charles deals very rapidly with the problems in the pack the next day and during his stay, his internal wolf decides that Anna should be his mate for life. None of this is a surprise to anyone who has read the other books in this series. I'd read Cry Wolf, and wondered a bit about the events referred to in that novel, which are neatly described in this book, which I just ran across at the library the other day.

This is barely a novelette, a mere light snack, but like a good appetizer, it whets the desire to read more Briggs.