Perfect Shadow Review

Title: The Perfect Shadow
Author: Brent Weeks
Series: Night Angel Trilogy Prequel, Novella
Genre: Epic Fantasy, Magic, Assassins, Action, Adventure

Book Preview:

Discover the origins of Durzo Blint in this original novella set in the world of Brent Weeks' New York Times bestselling Night Angel trilogy."I got a bit of prophecy," the old assassin said. "Not enough to be useful, you know. Just glimpses. My wife dead, things like that to keep me up late at night. I had this vision that I was going to be killed by forty men, all at once. But now that you're here, I see they're all you. Durzo Blint."Durzo Blint? Gaelan had never even heard the name.Gaelan Starfire is a farmer, happy to be a husband and a father; a careful, quiet, simple man. He's also an immortal, peerless in the arts of war. Over the centuries, he's worn many faces to hide his gift, but he is a man ill-fit for obscurity, and all too often he's become a hero, his very names passing into legend: Acaelus Thorne, Yric the Black, Hrothan Steelbender, Tal Drakkan, Rebus Nimble.But when Gaelan must take a job hunting down the world's finest assassins for the beautiful courtesan-and-crimelord Gwinvere Kirena, what he finds may destroy everything he's ever believed in.

Review
This is my second short story/novella that I have read among my collection of e-books as I rarely read novellas unless it serves as a prequel of a book series that interests me. This week I was able to finish reading Brent Meek's "Perfect Shadow" which is a prequel to the Night Angel trilogy series.

The story setting is somewhat similar to Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire to which the protagonist Gaelen Starfire (which is one of Durzo Blint's past name before the start of the Night Angel trilogy) is telling his life story to a young redhead Yvor Vas who later on was revealed to have an interest in "acquiring" the Black Ka'Kari from Durzo to no avail.

This novella is a must read for those who want to start reading the Night Angel series as this will give you an overview about Durzo Blint's history.

Fool Moon Review

Title: Fool Moon
Author: Jim Butcher
Series: Dresden Files #2
Genre: Detective, Private Investigator, Urban Fantasy, Wizards, Werewolves

Review:
The "Fool Moon" continues to follow the career of Harry Dresden, Chicago's only wizard/private invesigator, who seems to be having some trouble finding work after the incidents from "Storm Front. But when there's a string of grotesque murders happening, Harry gets to investigate the case which later involves a mob boss and a vicious gang of werewolf bikers.

Harry has also progress as the protagonist as the story begins to explore part of Harry's past as well as a potential budding romance even his sarcasms and jokes are beginning to evolve (specially when Harry consults with Bob the Skull).

Aside from the main protagonist, the plot is interesting as readers are presented with wide variety of lycanthropes (werewolves, hexenwolves, loup garou etc.) which made this book action-packed.

All in all, Fool Moon is by far one of the best books ever written by Jim Butcher and I cannot wait to read the next book of this series

I would recommend this novel to anyone who read and liked the first book and anyone who is looking for a good paranormal/urban fantasy series.

Clockwork Angel Review

Title: Clockwork Angel
Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: The Infernal Devices #1
Genre: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Nephilim, Steampunk, Romance.

Review:
Clockwork Angel is the first installment of the Infernal Devices Trilogy a prequel story to the highly successful The Mortal Instruments series. This series is set into  Victorian time London other than setting, the theme is rather the same with the TMI.

Clockwork Angel is a captivating novel that Twilight fans will enjoy sinking their teeth into. At the end of each chapter, the Clare dangles just enough information and action to keep the reader hooked. As with the original series, Clare has a penchant for using cliffhangers to keep the series interesting.  

Even so, the Cassandra Clare succeeds in offering enchanting and diverse characters placed in a well-constructed "steampunk" Victorian London setting. Readers will find the characters' background -- each was orphaned as a young child, has a secret past, and struggles with identity and longing for home.

Overall, Clockwork Angel is a great introduction to world of the Shadowhunters particularly the ancestors of the characters in the TMI series. Despite some similarities with the original series, the overall flow of the stories was more mysterious and interesting.

Zero Dog War Review

Title: The Zero Dog War
Author: Keith Melton
Series:  Zero Dog Missions  #1
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Elemental Magic, Vampires, Military, Zombies, Demons, Mages

Review:

aptain Andrea Walker is the fearless leader of a unique band of mercenaries named The Zero Dogs. A eclectic band of warriors comprised of a sexually-repressed succubus, a gay demon sergeant, a decidedly un-empathic empath, a lazy vampire, a wanna be ninja medic, and a werewolf with a penchant for all things naughty. When The Zero Dogs are contacted by Homeland Security to find and eradicate a rogue necromancer who is using zombies to make gelatin to eventually rule the world, they get more then they bargained for in the form of Captain Jake Sanders (a shield mage). A professional soldier, having Jake on their team is a non negotiable condition to getting the job. The pages sizzle with the force of Andrea’s attraction to Jake but Andrea doesn’t trust him. Too many cooks spoil the soup and she’s not used to sharing her authority or her team. Andrea soon learns she’s going to need all her skills to survive this battle.

Zero Dog War is a unique combination of humor, military fiction, urban fantasy, and zombie fiction to go with a mashup between the A-team and the X-Men to which you will surely enjoy reading. I look forward for the sequel  

Storm Front Review

Title: Storm Front
Author: Jim Butcher
Series: Dresden Files #1
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Private Investigator, Wizards, Demons, Vampires

Review:
Storm Front is the very first book written by Jim Butcher. The book introduce us to Harry Dresden, A wizard and a private investigator who deals with cases relating to the paranormal (vampires, werewolves, the fae, spirits, demons etc.). He is also a consultant for the Special Investigations divisions of the Chicago Police Department headed by Karrin Murphy which is task to keep paranormal cases under wraps to avoid public knowledge.

The story is about a case of a couple that was murdered using magic. The woman was later learned that she was works for a Red Court vampire named Bianca while the man was later reveal to be working for a guy name "Gentleman" Johnny Marcone, a well known kingpin in Chicago's criminal underworld. Meanwhile another woman hires Dresden to find her missing husband who was experimenting with magic and has gone missing for several weeks now. The two cases where later learned to be inter related as the missing husband was warlock responsible for the couples deaths.

Storm Front was also the first time we get to know Bob the skull, who was technically an intellectual air spirit who considered the skull to be his sanctum. There is always a comical moment everytime Harry consults Bob for anything related tomagic or the paranormal. We also get to know Susan Rodriguez, a persistent local reporter for a paranormal publication called "the Arcaine" which later becomes Harry's love interest.

Overall, Storm Front is a great introduction to the Dresden Files series despite a not impressive action scenes.

Succubus Blues Review

Title: Succubus Blues
Author: Richelle Mead
Series: Georgina Kincaid #1
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance, Demons, Angels

Review:

Succubus Blues is the very first paranormal romance book I ever read. I decided to read this over the more popular Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. I was enamored with "succubus" themes stories at the time and this series was the best to read at the time.  Succubus Blues is the first of installment of the Georgina Kincaid series.

 Ms. Mead was able to foray the demon world by using a "corporate" structure to their daily dealings in Seattle, Washington. The protagonist is the succubus Georgina Kincaid who works for an Archdemon "Jerome" with and imp named "Hugh" working as her "pimp".

Georgina’s fun! She’s smart. She loves books and unlike the any other succubi, She has a bit of a morality conflicts when she drains life energies from innocents that's why she prefer seducing men who are basically "bad" and that their souls are already tainted.

Another interesting aspect of this series is that Georgina has set of unconventional friends. Among them are a pair of vampires Peter and Cody, Hugh her imp, Jerome and to my surprise an archangel name Carter. Georgina's relationship revolves around her admiration to her favorite book author Seth Mortensen and guy named Roman.

Overall, Succubus Blue is a great introduction to the Georgina Kincaid series. Lots of romance, friendship, intrigues, drama, a bit of action and of course SEX.

Book Genre Preview: Urban Fantasy

Urban Fantasy has been the popular book genre today. Urban fantasy is a subset of contemporary fantasy, consisting of novels and stories with supernatural and/or magical elements set in contemporary, real-world, urban settings--as opposed to 'traditional' fantasy set in imaginary locations.

Many urban fantasy novels are told via a first-person narrative, and feature supernatural beings such as vampires, shapeshifters, fairies, witches, sorcerers, and demons. Urban fanatasy stories tend to have a high amount of suspense and action, and sometimes include mystery, romance, humor and/or horror in the plotline.

Some of the today's popular Urban-Fantasy books are the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer, Mortal Instrument Series by Cassandra Clare, Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead, Dresden Files Series by Jim Butcher, Grave Hunter series by Jeaniene Frost and Mercy Thompson by Patrica Briggs among others.