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Kate Griffin: Stray Souls
Apr. 21st, 2013 01:35 pmJust finished reading this. I kind of stalled in the middle due to dissertation, but I picked up again at chapter 25 and it didn't seem to suffer for it, I could still remember who everyone was and they're all vivid whenever you meet them.
Kate Griffin writes urban fantasy with great emphasis on the urban. There's an eye for detail that makes everything recognisable, and then she adds a twist. That's true of her characters too, the familiar parts are so very familiar you feel you know that person, by type or as someone you could name, and then there's the fantasy elements, and they go together but not in ways you'd have thought of before reading. It's the layer of defamiliarisation on everyday things that I look for in fantasy, and it's the making metaphors of your personal demons that worked so well for Buffy. Plus it is not, thankfully, secretly paranormal romance with the wrong label. Urban fantasy adventure stories all the way.
This one is about a woman who starts a support group for people with paranormal problems. Magicals Anonymous. Started on facebook and meeting in a church hall after the kids judo clears out.
Everything after that unfurls with that mix of unexpected and inevitability that makes a great story, so I kind of don't want to say anything else about it.
It's about a woman growing into her power and figuring out who she is. And it remains about that woman even after the bloke from the author's other series of books turns up. He turns up specifically to be a bit useless in that situation, which is why he is not the hero this time. There isn't even the slightest hint of being much impressed with him at all actually. It's so easy to make the established guy look cool at the expense of the new woman, but that was avoided. Yaays.
If you like urban fantasy about interesting women who don't have to shoot things to be strong, you might want to read this.
Kate Griffin writes urban fantasy with great emphasis on the urban. There's an eye for detail that makes everything recognisable, and then she adds a twist. That's true of her characters too, the familiar parts are so very familiar you feel you know that person, by type or as someone you could name, and then there's the fantasy elements, and they go together but not in ways you'd have thought of before reading. It's the layer of defamiliarisation on everyday things that I look for in fantasy, and it's the making metaphors of your personal demons that worked so well for Buffy. Plus it is not, thankfully, secretly paranormal romance with the wrong label. Urban fantasy adventure stories all the way.
This one is about a woman who starts a support group for people with paranormal problems. Magicals Anonymous. Started on facebook and meeting in a church hall after the kids judo clears out.
Everything after that unfurls with that mix of unexpected and inevitability that makes a great story, so I kind of don't want to say anything else about it.
It's about a woman growing into her power and figuring out who she is. And it remains about that woman even after the bloke from the author's other series of books turns up. He turns up specifically to be a bit useless in that situation, which is why he is not the hero this time. There isn't even the slightest hint of being much impressed with him at all actually. It's so easy to make the established guy look cool at the expense of the new woman, but that was avoided. Yaays.
If you like urban fantasy about interesting women who don't have to shoot things to be strong, you might want to read this.