Fangs For The Fantasy

The very nature of urban fantasy means an interaction with the supernatural. Regardless of the supernatural creature that the author chooses to focus on, the one thing is certain, unless an author is making up a brand new creature from thin air, there will be a strong lore in existence, which will highly influence how the character is written.  The vampire has most certainly taken a lead in terms of representation. The werewolf is far less popular but when it does make an appearance, regardless of who the author is, the characterisation is nearly uniform.  In many ways, the werewolf can be understood as a metaphor for hyper masculinity and violence. Over the years, werewolf nature has become commonplace to explain away abusive relationships and a forced submission upon their partners.  That this is romanticized is one of the largest issues with how lycanthropy is constructed today.

Perhaps the most common werewolf trope is extreme possessiveness to the point of jealousy. These wolves demand to control and own their women and defend them like an actual wolf would its hunting territory. I still await the story when a werewolf actually cocks his leg against his woman, but I won’t be surprised when it happens.

This overwhelming possessiveness and control is constantly presented as romantic. In the Otherworld Series when Elena returns to Stonehaven, Clay simply will not accept that she won’t be with him and considers them married, despite her objections. Even after she is reconciled to their relationship, he demands near constant attention from her. Other men cannot even look at Mercy from the Mercy Thompson series with Adam growling, roaring and coming close to attacking and he is extremely reluctant to ever let her out of his sight. In the Caedemon Wolves, the fact Devin feels possessive of Tamara and is jealous when she speaks to other men is the very first sign that he actually has feelings for her - before love or affection or kindness, it’s possession. Even in Twilight Jacob forces a kiss on Bella despite her objections - to say nothing of imprinting, including small children and even eggs in the womb; marked from the womb as owned! Taking, controlling and owning their mates is an incredibly common theme.

Dominance issues are nearly synonymous with werewolf stories today. It is based in the false idea that because werewolves literally have an animal nature that they will behave like wolves in a pack.  This would be a fine assumption, if this is what actually happened but that is not the case in most stories. In the books that I have read, alphas are almost always male though we know that in real packs there is an Alpha female or male or both.

The constant jockeying for position as Patricia Briggs portrays in the Mercy Thompson series is non existent. In Briggs’ world two wolves can barely stand to be in the same car with each other simply because they haven’t figured out who is the most dominant. Dominance in this way is more of one male testing his masculinity against another through violent means.  Because the violence is happening in a werewolf pack, it is never questioned and always rationalised, as though these men don’t spend more of their time in human form.

It’s also telling how so many of these dominance games put women at the bottom of the hierarchy - a major contrast to the lives of actual wolves. In the Mercy Thompson series, women are given the same rank as their mates, no matter if they were far more dominant than the men they were with. In The Protector female werewolves are sheltered and protected and often forced to take mates for their “protection.” In the Anita Blake Series just about all the shapeshifter packs are dominated by men, female heads are remarked upon for their rarity and the main source of influence for female shifters is as mate to a male leader.

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Mercy is settling into life as Adam’s husband, back from her honeymoon, fully recovered and facing a dread foe – Black Friday midnight shopping with Jesse, her new step-daughter. To add to the fun, she gets in a car wreck as well and has to write off her Rabbit.

If only that was the least of her problems. Almost the entire pack has been kidnapped, she can’t reach anyone over the phone, not even werewolves outside the pack, the one person she can find is injured and drugged – and there are unpleasant people with guns looking for her and targeting her friends on the edge of the pack.

Her small team has to try and find Adam – while Adam must try and escape before he’s blackmailed into doing something that could have all werewolves destroyed. Additional help from the government she doesn’t trust and a werewolf that may lose it at any time doesn’t necessarily help things

Then there’s some fae assassins, mystical weapons and a whole load of vampire politics to add to the mix.

And she’s stolen the vampire queen’s car. And broken it. Oops.

Reading the synopsis and the first few pages I had a lot of hope. Here was Mercy going to charge into battle on her own, her own actions, her own decisions, free from Adam’s often stifling shadow. And she was reconnecting with characters we haven’t seen in a while, like Kyle, while at the same time advancing the political meta plot.

That hope is now dead, tried to rise from the coffin, was staked, beheaded, burned and had its ashes scattered across four different bodies of water.

We start the story – drama drama, action (ish), the pack has been kidnapped. Mercy starts doing stuff without consultation (ish) and generally doing her best (sort of) to save everyone (well, some of them). And then Adam wrangles his own plan (well, no, opportunity falls in his lap) and loo, all is solved.

Sure, there’s a few loose ends to tie up, we’d kind of like to know who is behind it, but with one set of bad guys running and the other dead, it’s not a pressing or especially pertinent concern. And that’s how the book is written. I kind of expected the book to be over – the story was after all – but rather than working in a conclusion I discovered I was only 40% in. Not even half way through but the story was over – so what was happening? We kind of wallowed in limbo. Sure, one of those loose ends ballooned out into a full plot eventually – at about 65%. 20% of this book in the middle was just waffle and empty flailing with no real plot at all. Right in the middle of the book. It was like 2 books pasted together and some kind of mushy glue stuffed between them. There wasn’t so much a speed bump interrupting the story so much as a vast sink hole, sucking in all plot and leaving us directionless, lost and a little confused.

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This episode opens three months in the past and Alex is dressed to go on her date with Hal but she is at a fair with a little boy.  He wants to know if Alex is going out tonight, who is going to wash up and make dinner.  Alex says that it’s her holiday as well and promises to return to the fair with him the next day because they have all of the time in the world.

In the present, at the hotel, Alex is chattering away and Tom and Hal are trying to organize their chores. In frustration, Hal says, “Alex please!”  When she asks if they want her to shut up, Hal gets all smooth and says that she is “vibrant and entertaining company and is distracting them.”  Alex replies, “what am I supposed to do? I can’t eat and I can’t sleep.” What none of them know is that the devil is pretending to read a newspaper in the lobby and is watching them.  Tom asks Alex what she used to d do before and Alex replies that she looked after her brothers, went off the piss with her mates and played the piano. It turns out that Alex was going to be a concert pianist. Alex realises that Diagnosis Murder is on and disappears.

Patsy is arranging some flowers and the Captain (read: the devil)  asks if she has an admirer but Patsy replies that she picked them up at the petrol station thinking that it might brighten the place up a bit. Patsy goes on to add that she keeps thinking about Sophie (the girl the captain talked into committing suicide) and the captain asks, “that poor girl, was it something I said?” Patsy tells him that Sophie adored him and that he cannot blame himself. The captain replies that he has a plan to lift the spirits and as he and Patsy leave the room, the flowers that she just laid out appear visibly dead.

Alex is sitting at an organ playing when the hand of a child touches her shoulder.  When she turns around, no one is there.

Patsy talks to Hal and Tom and says that she will be watching them and that whoever impresses her the most, will be named employee of the month. She wishes them the best of luck but winks at Hal. Patsy then turns and leaves. Hal says that this is why the world is going to hell in a hand basket and cannot believe that people need competition for them to do their jobs properly. When he turns, Hal finds that Tom has straightened his clothing. Tom says, “game on, you will have your work cut out if you want to beat me buddy boy.”  At first, Hal says that he is not going to compete, but Tom counters saying that Hal doesn’t want to try because he knows he will be beaten.  Tom says that it would be the easiest thing in the world for him to win this ridiculous competition. The two start bickering, until Hal says that he accepts the challenge. The two head into the kitchen grab cleaning supplies and head out.

Alex decides to venture downstairs.  As she looks around, she hears a voice calling her name.  When she heads into the bathroom, she sees a sink and turns on the water and the noise gets deafening.

In the main room, Tom tosses out the dead flowers.  Patsy enters and asks where the flowers are, so Tom says that he has taken care of it. Patsy is not impressed and informs Tom that this is 7.99 down the drain and will be coming out of his wages.  Hal snarks that this has put Tom in Patsy’s bad books. Alex bursts into the room and says that she believes their house is haunted.

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Aaron Sagers:        I’m great. I was wondering, I saw the first two episodes and I liked it and I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about your initial reaction when you found out that basically everything about the show is being upended in the first two episodes; that the whole concept of the show- everybody sort of does become human in a way. And also if you had any concern that this might be too much of a superman-dive type of gimmick that might irritate dedicated fans?

Sam Witwer:         I really like it. I suppose the question is for me, considering Anna invented these shake-ups.

Anna Fricke:         I thought it was awesome.

Sam Witwer:         Exactly. I was thrilled. I thought it was really fantastic; in fact, the entire cast was really blown away with the move because you want to feel like the things that happen leave an indelible mark on the characters and on the situations, so you want the show to evolve. Sagers, you bring up the superman example, the example I would bring up would be Battlestar Galactica - that I think the best thing they did was that big shakeup going into Season 3. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it…

                              But I think Anna and her writers did a fantastic job in creating a season that allowed us to get really deep with our characters this year. This is definitely the character season where we really get to know the characters even better than we did before in a big way.

Anna Fricke:         If I could just add to that, I think part of what we’ve always loved about the concept of the show is that with great pain lies great humor and it’s a very human process that they’re going through. And the whole concept of Being Human is that it’s never going to work out for these people.

                              So, even if we do something like shake it up as we did in the first season, something is going to go wrong there and it’s never really going to work out. So I guess that’s why I always feel safe and the writers feel safe in playing within those parameters because it’s not going to work out. And if it ever does work out, that’s the end of the show. So, we have some room to play with.

Operator:               Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Lisa Macklem from SpoilerTV.com, please go ahead.

Lisa Macklem:       This is for both of you, whoever wants to answer; with Surin dead is Aidan going to then be a better roommate and friend to the other two? And,  second part, does this mean he’s going to go after - and that’s actually a fan question, I can’t even really take credit for it, but I thought it was a great one.

Sam Witwer:         I love - this is awesome, you’re asking the question  like when the guy breaks up with the girlfriend that the friends don’t like and say, ‘Okay, so you’re going to like hang out with us again?’

Sam Witwer:         You know, the answer is yes actually, it’s - the answer is oddly, yes - the thing with the Surin relationship is that while there was love there and affection and a lot of attempts at making it work, I don’t know how Anna and Jeremy looked at it, but I looked at it is like this is the bad relationship year for Aidan.

                              This is when, you know, it’s like that girl you really want to date in high school and then you dated her at 25 and it just wasn’t what you thought it was going to be and you just keep trying to make it work and it’s fighting you every step of the way because you can’t.  In the second season of a show, you can’t do the love of someone’s life. It’s probably not the best idea because you have other seasons and other people to meet.

                              So that was the way I interpreted it,  like we’re telling the story of a destructive relationship and it’s not necessarily either of their faults that it’s destructive, it’s just that the circumstances and everything that have gone down make it destructive. So he’s coming out of that definitely mindful of what it caused him to do to other people and, yes, we definitely see the three roommates interacting a lot more this year which is great fun for the cast considering we all like each other. Anna did you have anything to say about that?

Anna Fricke:         No, I mean I think that that’s putting it perfectly and I don’t know if you want to speak to the mother situation do you?

Sam Witwer:         Oh, I didn’t - go for it - you want to hit that?

Anna Fricke:         Well I mean, yes, and you guys have seen the first couple of episodes, I will say this about mother; I think that given how Aidan went into the ground at the end of Season 2, going after mother was the very first thing on his mind I think for a very long time and as we’ll see, he comes up into the ground in this season, he’s coming up into a very different landscape.

                              So I think that anything he may have been holding onto underground he’s going to have to let go of. But that would be his sort of greatest hope, but things change.

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Aidan

The gang is all together cooking dinner – which only Josh eats of course. Yet that doesn’t stop Sally and Aidan doubting the Jewish werewolf with inept knife skills ability to prepare it appropriately. They also have a fun snarky conversation about terrible ways to die, Aidan and Josh listing something that happened to them that was the other’s fault and poking fun at Sally’s balance of the universe killing people thing. And Aidan gets more and more serious insists that they don’t have to die and they’re not going to die.

And Aidan wakes up from his little odd hallucination underground where Mother buried him. He isn’t looking good and has clearly been buried for some time, going by the raging facial hair.

He is dug up (while he babbles apologies to Mother) by someone who claims to be a friend (and carries a stake, so not that friendly. Or maybe just sensibly cautious). His name is Micky and he puts some kind of metal contraption over Aidan’s head.

When he wakes, it seems the contraption is some kind of prop from Saw or Silence of the Lambs that covers his jaw and stops him nibbling on people. He’s in a nasty dank basement with blood bags and blood stained rags and other unpleasant things you really don’t want to wake up to. The man tells Aidan that he’s one of the few left that “they’re all dead” (I assume the other vampires) and those left want his blood because he’s “pure” and they believe it will cure them. And Micky is going to sell that blood.

Of course, dealing with vampires isn’t the most sensible option and when his customer arrives – Atlee (one of the Amish vampires who are part of the Dutch we have seen before) and stakes him with his own stake, unable to pay Micky’s prices. He rescues Aidan, empties the fridge of blood and helps Aidan leaves – but Atlee stops him feeding on Micky, telling him the blood can kill him.

They drive off and Atlee explains the situation. Mother’s dead, they’re all dead or disappeared searching for untainted blood. Apparently the latest flu epidemic left human blood tainted and any vampire who feeds on it gets sick – including Atlee who already has lesions around his face.  Atlee thinks Aidan may be the answer. Which is when Aidan’s hallucinations kick in again, with Hallucination!Sally pointing out he’s about to be eaten by a pack of rabid, virus stricken, Amish vampires (which sounds ridiculous no matter how you phrase it). In fact can we keep them around? Hallucination!Sally and Hallucination!Josh are waaay more fun than their reality counterparts. They’re joined by Hallucination!Bishop and after some hilarious banter (I love these, we gotta keep them) they encourages Aidan to fight – he attacks Atlee but in his weakened state the other vampire wins and bites him, hoping Aidan’s blood will save him (Hallucination!Bishop apologises).

Having drunk from Aidan, Atlee is shocked to realise that his blood isn’t the cure – and crumbles to death in the driver’s seat, causing the van to crash.

Aidan lies by the side of the road, not looking well, while Hallucination!Josh and Hallucination!Sally watch him and get angry over him dying. Aidan insists he’s not going to die, gasping and fighting and willing to live.


Sally

Sally is in limbo, which has a nifty fuzzy black and white ghosty effect, running with 2 companions, Nick and Stevie (old shredded ghosts – actually ghosts Sally shredded, he who constantly drowned in the Dr. Who scarf and the kid she went to school with). They’re trying to get back to the living world and it isn’t going well. After her failed attempt to get through the door of the house, Stevie and Nick disappear.

She goes and finds them – Nick in a lake, drowning again, and Stevie (who committed suicide, albeit with pills) hanging from a tree, watching his family go on without him; their personal limbos. They return to the house, the door doesn’t open, again, and her companions disappear, again. Looks like this is Sally’s personal limbo. Nick and Stevie try to talk her out of continually trying again and again.

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When Elena wakes, she is in bed with Damon and they are both dressed. Though Damon points out that this would have been so much fun if they were both naked, he says that he was being a gentleman.  I am actually quite happy that they didn’t have sex because Elena’s inability to say no, would have made it an act of rape. Damon points again that Elena is sired to him but she says that she is not ready to let go of how she feels.  Damon again says that he told Stefan that he would set her free and they interrupted by Bonnie, who has been teaching Jeremy how not to kill Elena.  Elena asks Damon to come along with her to her family’s cabin.

Klaus is busy painting a giant snowflake as his donation to the winter wonderland charity event.  Adrian shows up and Klaus tells him to deliver the painting, but Adrian is not at all impressed with being ordered about. Adrian grabs the painting and leaves, as Stefan quips, “Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves.”  Really? Who exactly thought that this was a great line considering that the writers constantly write scenes which praise the antebellum south, have referred to Bonnie’s great grandmother as a handmaiden rather than a slave, and have refused to admit that the old Lockwoood property was a plantation?  If they are going to invoke slavery they need to follow that up with some decent racial inclusion and at the very least end the high praise of the antebellum south that The Vampire Diaries constantly engages in. Stefan tells Klaus that Elena is sired to Damon and Klaus says that he retrieved the hunters sword from Italy. When Stefan questions whether or not Klaus actually found the sword, Klaus grabs it from his vault.

Adrienne goes to see Tyler to complain about having to continue to serve Klaus, though he is no longer bonded to him.  Haylee tells them all that she has found a witch who is going to save all of their lives. Tyler heads off to the fair to see Caroline, where he tells her that Haylee found a witch to move Klaus into a different body and then they plan to bury the body in concrete. Tyler says, “this started with me and it has to end with me,” as a way of justifying why he has agreed, to let Klaus take up residence in his body again.

Jeremy is splitting wood at the cabin, when Elena and Damon pull up.  Bonnie walks out to Jeremy and takes the axe away from him. Bonnie and Jeremy then walk towards the cabin door, which Shane opens.  Damon is surprised to see Shane and Elena admits that she invited him.  When Elena and Damon arrive at the door, she tells Jeremy that this is his house now and that he has to invite her in.  The moment Elena enters, Jeremy pulls out a stake and attempts to kill her.

Caroline calls Stefan to say that she is in a crises. Stefan tells Caroline that Klaus’ sword decodes Jeremy’s tattoo. Caroline asks if Klaus handed over the sword and says that they need to get their hands on the sword because the hybrids are taking out Klaus that night.

Caroline is looking at Klaus’ painting and tells him that there is something lonely about it  When he offers her champagne, she says no because there are too many adult prying eyes and that she doesn’t want to end up as a cautionary tale at the next town meeting. Klaus answers, “it’s a good thing that highschool is almost over.”  Caroline changes her mind about the drink and then moment Klaus leaves to get it for her, she texts Stefan to let him know that Klaus is officially distracted? How many times is Klaus going to fall for this? He is supposed to be an original vampire, how silly can he be to keep falling for the same distraction?

Stefan is on the phone with Damon, while he is searching Klaus’ home.  Of course, Stefan now cannot find the sword.  Damon tells him to kill Tyler before he gets to Klaus or tell Klaus about the hybrids, so that he will kill Tyler.  Stefan replies that no one is killing Tyler and asks where Elena is today. Damon says that Elena is running around trying to reprogram Jeremy and then lies about breaking the sire bond.

Jeremy is tied to a chair and candles are lit.  Shane says that he is teaching Jeremy to have his subconscious recognise Elena as someone he loves.  Shane instructs Elena to talk to Jeremy and so she talks about the memories they have associated with the vacation house.  Elena tells Jeremy that their parents would have wanted them to stick together and fight for each other no matter what. When Shane asks Jeremy how he feels about Elena, he says, that she is not even his real sister and is the reason why everyone that he has ever cared about his died.  Seriously, Elena may not have liked the sound of that but it’s the absolute truth and so it’s too bad they had to make his comments all about the mark. Jeremy vows to kill Elena, even if it means he dies himself.

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Shiarra is a private detective – for now anyway, though her business is in severe financial difficulty and it’s only with the intervention of her very wealthy business partner that they’re even keeping afloat at all.

It’s these money troubles that drives her to accept a case from the Magi. Despite never working for the Others and having no wish to spend any time among the relatively newly revealed supernatural creatures, the offer is simply too good to refuse. Even if it does mean spying on a vampire to learn about a highly in demand artefact that has gone missing.

Unfortunately, she quickly finds herself revealed – and threatened – by the vampire that tries to put her very life in his hands. And she comes to the attention of the White Hats, a fanatical group determined to eliminate the Others. Already that’s more than complicated enough, but then people start dying to attacks that make no sense and events are being manipulated by a shadowy hand above and beyond the immediate players.

This is the kind of Urban Fantasy world that is guaranteed to pull me. Diverse creatures, integration into the human world, magic and vampires and werewolves, politics between the different groups, politics between them and the humans – it’s just the kind of world I love. No, it’s not completely knew, we know all of this before and none of the creatures here really strike new ground – but it’s an old pattern done well with enough original twists to keep me interested, keep drawing me in and keep enjoying it without think that it’s been done before. It’s a variation of an old theme – but it’s a good theme, it’s a fun theme and while the picture is similar, the details and story are different.

And it’s very well written. We have a few unnecessary monologues, but the pacing is excellent. We have a vast amount of information about the world but it’s all presented in a really natural way that completely flows into the story. The plot also has several interested parties, each with their own agendas and similar plots – the mages, the vampires, the White Hats – even Shiarra’s family but they are all given the attention they need and deserve without dragging the plot into a dozen different directions or getting us hopelessly lost. Couple with the necessary world building, the semi-love triangle, a decent cast of characters (even if they didn’t all play a huge role, they were all characters and there was some level of making them more than just floating names) keeping it all balanced was an act of true skill.

No matter what else, this book was an easy read because the writing just kept it all moving, kept me absorbed and never derailed me or left me floundering or bogged down – despite many chances when it could have.

Shiarra breaks the mould on a lot of Urban Fantasy protagonists. She’s not kick arse, she’s not lethal, she’s not skilled in weapons. She doesn’t want to get involved with the supernatural, she’s not hard as nails, she’s not a walking ball of attitude and chutzpah. The monsters frighten her, she doesn’t want anything to do with them, she doesn’t have the capability to deal with them. She isn’t a hunter, she isn’t a PI who works around the monsters - she’s been dragged into this against her will.

Which in some ways is so very refreshing because it is different and original. And it’s nice to see her grow in knowledge and experience and work her way out of it. In theory… yet… it’s hard not to be frustrated by the character – if she’s this afraid of the monsters I’m surprised, despite their money worries (though her very rich friend will support her), she took the case. And if she can’t make her business work without monster money then is she in the right business? And if she can be made to break a confidentiality clause and spill all her secrets because a vampire flashed his fangs at her then why would anyone trust her in such a sensitive job? Yes she’s afraid – but there’s fear and there’s cowardice. She also doesn’t seem to be all that good with at her job – she doesn’t seem to do or achieve anything through her PI profession, her plans don’t point to any particular knowledge or expertise. Her business partner has to set her up with her plan to approach Royce (who she didn’t even recognise), Arnold has to take her to get equipment and weapons – magical and otherwise (which she doesn’t question, despite the obviously illegal source). And the magical belt – which is certainly an awesome concept – gives her her impressive fighting skills which leaves me wondering what she brings to the story. There was apparently some event in the past that brought her to the attention of the Others – but we’re not really told what it is. So I keep asking why the Mages, Royce, anyone at all is interested in her? What makes her so special?

I’m torn between liking the normality of the main character – that she’s a person thrust into circumstances beyond her control, that she has a normal life, a mother who is worried about her singleness, money troubles in her business and a healthy fear of the supernatural (which, unfortunately, can spill over into some monologues) – and disliking the fact that she seems such an ill-fit for her own profession or a protagonist that’s particularly competent. And that’s not a bad thing – a protagonist doesn’t need to be competent or super brave, not all people are – but it can be frustrating at times. I think she’s a character with a lot of growth potential, but I also really think she will grow.

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Harry Dresden is back from the dead, convalescing in the less-than-tender embrace of the Winter Court and newly empowered as the Winter Knight. Winter Court politics are far from easy – especially when Mab, the Winter Queen, seems to be feuding with Maeve, the Winter Lady. And politics in the Winter court come in the form of constant assassination attempts.

Not that he has time for politics. We learn the true nature of his island, Demonreach and that it’s poised to explode and destroy a significant portion of the US – if not more – unless Harry acts. And he has to choose between killing Mab or Maeve – with the bonus of not knowing how to achieve either.

It’s a good thing he has the new power of the Winter Knight – and, even more, the support and strength of his good friends. But there is a darkness that connects all of Harry’s cases and the Nemesis can corrupt anyone.

And the new power of the Winter Knight comes with a cost – it changes people and Harry can feel its influence slowly eroding who he is and turning him into a monster like his predecessor.

I have been looking forward to this book for so long – counting the days. The minute I got my greasy hands on this book I sat down and started reading. Anyone who came near me was treated to the death glare until they retreated to minimum safe distance. I continued to read until the book was finished and I looked up to realise it was now 5:00am. I then spent an extra 10 minutes staring sadly at my Kindle and trying to figure out how to magically make it continue.

This is what Harry Dresden does to me and my sleep patterns.

Just about everything that makes the series one of my favourites was there. We had some amazingly awesome fight scenes, some excellent action and some truly amazing epic. There is no author I have ever read that comes close to packing the amount of blood-fizzing epic into a book as Jim Butcher does in the Harry Dresden series. I find myself torn between not moving my eyes from the page and just needing to move because to the power and pace of what is written. It may not be as epic as riding a Zombie Tyrannosaurus Rex through downtown Chicago – but leading the Wild Hunter and Father Christmas in an amphibious assault against demons is pretty up there. The pacing is electric, the snark is funny to hilarious and it was a joy to read.

But more than just the glorious epic, is the meta development. After 14 books of epic stories and occasional hints it has come together and the Nemesis has been revealed. And it is tying in everything – the previous Summer Lady, Harry’s very first case, the Shadow Council, the courts of the vampires. The Nemesis has had a hand in every previous book and it’s all coming together in a wonderfully complete, epic tapestry. With that has come a considerable amount of world building including expanding the nature of the Outsiders and filling in the role of the Winter Court. We also have a lot of very shiny major powers being expanded and developed – like the Queens of the Courts. These major, epic figures are expanded and heightened that add such excellent flavour to this awesome world.

The side characters in this book were very present but they were largely focused on backing up Harry after his long time comatose/ghostly. After the last book concentrated so much more on them and how they grew in his absence, this was an interesting work to bring them back together and to bring the new, Winter Knight Dresden together with the changed people in his circle. I do think we could have seen more of this – but feel it may come in another book when he doesn’t have 2 – or maybe 3 – life threatening disasters with a very short time line to deal with. I am glad that his friends greeted him without the drama of “ZOMG YOU LEFT US!” which is so common in the genre

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Dana is human who has built a normal human life. As much as you can when she was born in 1912. After making a deal with an ancient vampire shortly after her marriage, she gave part of her soul to create a vampire – her soul sister, Ani. After a long journey over the years, the two now live together, best friends and greatest confidants, the siblings are enjoying their eternal lives in their own ways.

Except Ani’s reckless behaviour draws more attention from the powers that be. Until her passionate defence of Dana against an attacker leads to more public deaths the vampire leader refuses to ignore. He demands their deaths and can find them anywhere

This launches a battle to find allies, to find a place to hide which, inevitably, leads to its own revolution as the siblings are forced to take the battle to the enemy.

This book has an extremely unique twist on the traditional vampire tale. In this world vampires are created by taking part of the soul of a human and creating a vampire “twin”. They look very alike and they depend on each other to survive. If one dies the other dies – resulting in a vampire and an immortal human. While it’s clear that not every vampire/human twin has a close bond, Ani and Dana definitely do.

The book also focuses on Dana, the human of the pair, and her journey into this life. Her life as a human in 1912, her life with her family and then her husband – followed by how she first made the decision to give up her soul and create Ani, and how her life developed with her new sister. Her past is rich and really well built with a full sense of what set her on the path. So much so that I think I would have liked to see more of Dana’s past in between the present and the loss of her husband, just to see the character develop more.

It’s also pretty rare to see a book that focuses so much on a sibling relationship. That mutual affection, care and worry for each other still spaced with that very common frustration at the others actions. It’s a very natural relationship for the most part and underpins the book.

For a long time though, the book does seem to be spinning it’s wheels. We’re introduced to these characters but they don’t seem to be overly involved in anything except developing them. Even when the path is set, they then spend a lot of detailed time training all interspaced with odd little conflicts as one of the characters gets angry over something – which then disappears or fades away. The end of the book does pick up very well though, racing with plot and intensity towards the conclusion.

Unfortunately, while the book had wonderful things going for it, it was then badly let down by the writing. Firstly, it needed an editor. I understand this is a later edition and considerably improved on previous versions but there are still grammar and word issues that need correcting.

Beyond that, the book just didn’t flow for me, I found the language and, especially, the dialogue extremely stilted and unnatural, often bogged down with unnecessary explanation and exposition, too much telling rather than showing and an almost repetitive need to drive every point home. I think the best way to show this is with a quote:

    “Her friend Tasha said loudly. She said it so loud it left her ears tingling. Dana knew it was her friend Tasha because of the extra drama she poured into saying the simple words.”

After this we get a long explanation of who Tasha is (a friend – which we already know) and this character never really comes up again. This kind of writing continues throughout the entire book, stilted, long winded and often unnecessary.

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Elena is lying in bed, full of angst and so decides to get up and have some warm milk.  A voice says, “can’t sleep,” but when she turns around she is all alone.  Suddenly, Connor appears and tells Elena that it makes sense because she has a guilty conscience. Elena is frantic to believe that Connor is a ghost, but he grabs her and chokes her from behind.  When Connor goes to attack her, she stabs a knife through his throat, but the person she actually stabbed was Jeremy.

Jeremy is now laid out on a couch and Damon and Elena are talking.  Elena is worried about what she is going to tell Jeremy and Damon says she should thank him for not ditching the family ring. When Damon asks why Elena didn’t call Stefan, she says that she is still mad at him and that he has been lying to her. Stefan walks in and Damon admits that he called him.  Elena goes upstairs to wash up as Jeremy comes back to life.

Stefan heads upstairs to talk to Elena and says that he wants to help her, but Elena is not interested.  Stefan brings up the fact that she turned to Damon for help, but Elena reminds him that it was Stefan who decided to work with Klaus. Stefan tries to tell her that it’s not what she thinks, but Elena does not want to hear it.

Tyler comes downstairs and finds Chris and Hayley still drinking to mourn the loss of the hybrid we lost last episode.  Interestingly enough, Chris is Black and I wonder how long he will last and if he will be yet another token to be quickly killed off? Hayley has her flirt on and Klaus interrupts and is pissed that Dean was unsuccessful and that Elena killed the hunter. Tyler asks why Klaus cares that Connor is dead and Klaus replies, “I have my reasons, but they have ceased to matter.” There’s a knock at the door and it’s Caroline dropping off Tyler’s things.  Tyler tries to tell Caroline that it is not a good time, but she shoves the box at him.  Klaus says, “by the break up drama unfolding before me, I assume that you have met Hayley.”  Klaus and the other hybrids clear out to leave Caroline alone with Tyler.  It turns out that Hayley let Caroline know that Klaus was there but when Tyler and Caroline kiss, the look that Hayley gives them, suggests that she would be more than willing to push Caroline out of the way.

Elena is in the shower and when blood pools at the bottom of the tub, she freaks out and steps away. Elena quickly hops out. Downstairs, Damon and Stefan are talking when Klaus calls.  Stefan tells Damon that if Klaus finds out he knows, then they are both dead.  Klaus is not impressed but Stefan says that if he hadn’t been sworn to secrecy that Connor would not be dead right now. Klaus tells Stefan that the hunter was one of five and that they will find another. Klaus asks if Elena has started to hallucinate yet and then knocks on the front door.  Klaus reminds Stefan that he killed the original five hunters.  “Because the hunters were spelled by witches to kill vampires, if one is killed, then he will take you down with him,” Klaus says.  Klaus adds that Connor’s death will not prevent him from making Elena his last vampire kill.  Klaus’ big plan is to lock Elena away and keep her away from any sharp wooden objects.  Stefan says that Elena is not going anywhere with him.

Upstairs, Connor appears in Elena’s mirror.  Elena tries to say that she wasn’t herself but Connor replies that she is a monster, who deserves to die.  Elena runs downstairs but instead of seeing Damon, she sees Connor, who says that he is rotting in an unmarked grave because of her.  To escape, Elena runs outside and Klaus grabs her and disappears, as Damon walks onto the front porch and calls out her name.

At the school, Jeremy shows Matt his hand and asks if he can see the tattoo. Of course Matt cannot see it and asks if the mark makes him the next chosen one? April shows up with the professor and April asks why he looks so familiar.  Once again, April is in search of Rebekah. Personally, Rebekah can just stay in the plot box because I find her entire character useless and annoying.

Back at Elena’s, the Salvatores have once again leaned on Bonnie.  Can her character ever do anything but concern herself with what is going on with Elena? Bonnie says that if she could do anything to help she would but she can’t.  Damon is not buying that, even though Bonnie says that the witches won’t let her do the magic to break the curse.  Bonnie says that she can ask Shane for help.  It irks me that Damon does not even stop to consider what the consequences might be for Bonnie, because he wants his precious Elena safe.  Stefan leaves saying that he is going to get Elena back, while Bonnie and Damon do their thing.

In the meantime, Klaus has imprisoned Elena in a dark room to prevent her from taking off her daylight ring and burning to death.  Elena says that she would never do that and Klaus answers that she will want to. Klaus admits that he did but could not die because he is immortal.  Klaus says that he went through this for fifty-two years, nine months and five days.  Elena asks if he knew that this would happen if Connor died and if Stefan knew as well.  Klaus responds that what Stefan knew is that the hunter had to be kept alive.  Elena asks what else Stefan knows and how he made it stop. Klaus answers that he didn’t and that eventually it just stopped, before leaving the room and locking Elena in.

Stefan gets on the phone with Caroline and asks if Tyler can get the other hybrids away, so that he can free Elena. Stefan heads to Tyler’s where he learns that Hayley helped Tyler break the sire bond and that she has also been helping her friend Chris to do the same. It turns out that Hayley’s mission is to break the sire bond of all of the other hybrids.

Chris delivers clothes and a toothbrush to Elena and the moment he leaves, Connor appears again.  Elena admits that she liked killing Connor and that she liked the taste of his blood.  Connor says that he had family and asks her if she is sorry about her parents because they died because of her. Connor promises that he will be there until she takes her last miserable breathe because she is a monster and deserves to die. Katherine suddenly appears.

Shane is giving his seminar and April realises that she knows Shane through her father. Damon and Bonnie show up at the seminar.  Shane dismisses the group and approaches Bonnie.

Katherine is now tormenting Elena and asking what Stefan is thinking of the new her.  Katherine says that she is a vampire and that she will kill again and become just like her.  Katherine tells Elena that she at least still has Damon.  When Elena tries to tackle Katherine, she disappears.

Damon is having a drink and Shane and Bonnie enter the room.  Bonnie explains Damon by saying that he is an expert in this area.  Damon hands Shane the drawing that Jeremy did of the hunters tattoo and asks about the hunters curse.  Shane says that a hunter will haunt the person who killed him, until a new hunter reaches his potential and the legacy is passed on. Shane offers to get his research for him and leaves. Bonnie asks how they are supposed to find a potential hunter and so Damon gets on the phone and calls Jeremy.

While Caroline is distracting Klaus, Tyler is meeting with Chris.  Klaus says that he cannot release Elena because she needs his help.  Klaus adds that if Tyler were still sired to him, that he would not have allowed Tyler to hurt Caroline. Klaus offers Caroline a drink.  Tyler and Stefan try to convince Chris to give them access to Elena.  Chris says that Klaus will send one of his other hybrids after him, but Tyler promises that both he and Hayley have his back and will make sure nothing happens. Yep, you know damn well at this point that Chris is going to be lucky to get out of this with his life.

Katherine is continuing to torment Elena.  Katherine decides to point out the fact that everyone around Elena keeps getting hurt.  Chris sends the two hybrids guarding Elena away and then hands Stefan the key and leaves. When Stefan enters, she stabs him and then rushes out of the room.

Jeremy comes rushing in and they tell him that he needs to kill a vampire.  Jeremy asks for a stake but Bonnie tells him that before he does this, he has to figure out what he is getting himself into.  Stefan calls Damon, who tells him that they have figured out their Elena problem. Stefan admits that he lost Elena and asks Damon to go and find her because she will listen to him.

Caroline gets a text explaining what is going on with Elena and she admits that she is there to distract Klaus.  Klaus jumps up to leave and threatens to kill Caroline if she does not stop talking and Caroline quickly says that they have figured out how to stop the hallucinations.

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