Book #8

Kitty Goes to Washington by Carrie Vaughn

I liked this one a lot; I prefer this werewolf series to Patricia Briggs', I think, and definitely to Jane Lindskold's, though the differing genres has something to do with that. Lindskold's book was good, but as I think I said, it didn't focus on the wolf story enough; too much about politics and succession, and the wolf got lost along the way. Almost the same thing with Patricia Briggs; they don't feel as genuine as these do, more like a serious fairy tale than a story of real people.

This one doesn't do that. this is about real people dealing with real problems -- one of which just happens to be a fur problem, or a dead, blood-drinking problem. The thing I like most about these is that they feel very genuine; it was utterly believable in the first one that a woman who happened to be a werewolf would use her position as a late-night DJ to start talking about supernatural stuff, and if she happened to get a caller who was also a werewolf, it would be hard to keep the secret from getting out -- it made perfect sense. This book also made sense: if there were a government body studying the possibility of werewolves and vampires, it would probably be like the Center for Paranatural Biology, and if it came to the attention of the Senate, it would certainly get picked up by a committee, and everything that happens in the book would naturally progress from there. I loved the Crescent, though I didn't like that Ahmed was so hands-off about everyone else's problems; I understood it, but I like Kitty and I wanted him to be the hero and help her -- and even more, I wanted him to have been helping Fritz. But on the plus side, that is exactly what I want the Gabriel books to be about, at least in the short term: helping the people who come into the bar who are desperate in one way or another. So some of my bitterness was certainly about not being able to take over the story myself and tell the one I want to tell.

I liked the romance, and I really liked that it didn't take over; the ending of the book was perfect. I'm not as fond of Cormac as a character, nor his cousin Ben the lawyer/assistant vampire hunter. I don't buy them. Partly because so far, they haven't done squat in the two books in terms of living up to the badass reputation she has granted them, particularly Cormac. Okay, he can break into places well, but she acts as though he is the deadliest of all, even more dangerous than some of the supernaturals -- and why should I believe that? He hasn't even killed anyone. I liked the psychic, too, and the secret behind Elijah Smith -- though it was a bit of an anticlimax after all the buildup. I don't think it was a bad way for the story to play out, just not enough to justify all the hype. But then again, maybe Elijah Smith isn't gone. I love the fanatic Senator Duke, and I wonder what he'll do next now that he didn't get the proof he wanted of the werewolves' connection to Satan and all.

Man, fundamentalists are scary even in fantasy novels. I should really remember that.