A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

This intriguing title weaves together the themes of romance, suspense, historical research and genetic studies into a surprisingly cohesive story. The main character is historian Diana Bishop, related to Bridget Bishop made famous by the Salem Witch Trials.  While doing research in one of the Oxford University libraries, she stumbles across an enchanted manuscript from the seventeen hundreds.  Since Diana has always avoiding learning to use her own magic, despite her very talented parents, she dismisses its quirks and has it returned to the stacks by the clerk at the end of the  day.  This simple discovery starts a series of events that will impact Diana, not just professionally but personally, too.  Suddenly, she has attracted the entree paranormal world f Great Britain, including witches, daemons and vampires.  A handsome, charming vampire named Matthew Clairmont has an interest in the manuscript, too, but seems to be just as interested in Diana, pursuing her until she finally agrees to dinner with him, even though her aunt who raised her taught her that witches (even non-practicing ones) and vampires cannot even be friends, much less date.  As you can imagine, more than dating soon develops.

Harkness’s debut novel has much to speak in its favor: it’s suspenseful, fast-paced, hard to put down and even has a forbidden romance story thrown in for good measure.  For my taste, it was a little heavy on the romance, but I’m sure that will be a positive for many readers.  I recommend this book to fans of paranormal romances, horror fans, and readers who liked the Twilight series before we all got tired of it.

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

The Mortal Instruments  Book 4

While this may not the strongest title in Clare’s popular Mortal Instruments series, devoted fans will still be engaged in following the continuing adventures and emotional ups and downs of Clary Fray and her friends.  This story actually belongs to her best friend Simon Lewis, the recently turned vampire, more than any other character.   Called the Daylighter vampire for his ability to go out into the sunshine and function during the day like the Shadowhunters and some of the non-vampire Downworlders,  he quickly becomes the target of an ancient vampire and as well as others who try to get him to use his unique power to their advantage.

I would recommend this book to all Cassandra Clare fans and followers of the Mortal Instruments series.

                   

Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Authors Garcia and Stohl will not disappoint readers who loved their debut novel Beautiful Creatures.  This second title in the series is jam packed with action, picking up at Mason Melchizedek Ravenwood’s funeral right after the conclusion of the first book.  If you remember, somehow Caster girl Lena has somehow avoided having to choose between Light and Dark, but feels that she’s somehow responsible for her Uncle Mason’s death.  Lena pulls away from Ethan, and quickly runs away with her Dark cousin Ridley and John Steed, who appears to be a Dark caster, but Ethan can’t quite tell what.  John has promised to take Lena to the Great Barrier, where he claims Light and Dark make no difference and Lena can just be herself.  Convinced she’s only headed for trouble, John enters the underground Castor tunnels to find her, along with his best friend Link and the new trainee Keeper (Caster librarian) Liv.  Along the way the Ridley joins the group of misfits, although there’s something terribly different about her that we’ll leave the readers to discover.  The authors keep this story moving along at a brisk pace, focusing more on plot twists than character like the first installment.

I rate this book 5 *’s out of 5, and recommend it to readers of the first title, and all paranormal fans.

Here’s a short book trailer you can see from home:

The Strain by Guillermo del Toro

The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

This book is a hybrid between a traditional vampire story and a CSI mystery, if you can imagine that! The story takes place in modern day New York City, and begins with a huge Boeing 777 landing at JFK Airport, full of dead people.  Of course, terrorism is suspected immediately, but after that is ruled out, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) sends in their crack New York team, headed by Dr. Eph Goodweather.  They are shocked to find four survivors, and quarantine them immediately for testing so the doctors can figure out what happened to the rest of the people on the plane.  As it turns out, that giant, ornate box Eph saw near the plane was a indication of something ominous–in fact, a vampiric virus has been let loose on New York City!  A Holocaust survivor named Abraham Setrakian seems to understand exaxtly what is happening, and insists on talking to Eph and joins him in the quest to fight the fledgling virus.  Along the way they pick up exterminator named Vasiley Fet, who’s very useful since newly made vampires have similar behaviors to rats and have chased the infamous New York City rats out of their underground hiding places.

This books spends the first half explaining how the vampires are like a virus–very like the complicated medical discussions if you watch any of the CSI shows.  Pretty interesting stuff, and the authors also include some of Eph’s complicated family issues (divorce and custody fight) to explain his reactions to various twist in their investigation.  The Fall, which is the second book in the trilogy, continues the story with as many cliff hangers as the first book.  I highly recommend both.

This book was co-written by Guillermo del Toro, who directed Blade II,  the Hellboy series, and wrote Pan’s Labyrinth as well as a number of horror movies.  I’m impressed by the story and am relieved that his vampires are busy sucking blood instead of romancing sweet young things.  I recommend this without reservation to vampire, horror, and Stephen King fans.

Clockwork Angel

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

This title is the prequel to Clare’s amazing Mortal Instruments series, and the first in her new Infernal Devices series.  (Do we sense a trend here???)  This story takes places in the late 1800′s, when sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray’s guardian aunt dies, and she receives a letter from her brother in London with an ocean liner ticket for her to join him.  Naturally, things are not a simple as they seem, and she is kidnapped by the Dark Sisters upon her arrival, who claim to have her brother captive who they will kill if she doesn’t cooperate with them.  They insist and training her to hone her shape-shifting skills, where she can turn into other people by holding an object that belonged to them.  When Tessa finds out that their planning to give her to the Magister to marry, she realizes she must escape and is rescued shortly thereafter by two Nephilim Shadowhunters: Will and Jem.  The plot become more complex as Tessa discovers that as a shape-shifter she is also a downworlder, moves into the London Institute,  and begins to realize that her brother may not be the person she thought he was.

Clare’s rapid-fire plot does not disappoint, moving quickly from one crisis to the next.  As in her other books, her characters are well-drawn, although we don’t learn much about Will’s mysterious past, the reader gets the sense that all will be revealed in future volumes.  As always, I highly recommend this title for all science fiction and fanstasy fans, especially readers who were enthralled by The City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass.

The Passage — Review and Author Visit

The Passage by Justin Cronin

This is the best book I’ve read so far this summer. OK, I just had to get that out of the way.   The Passage tells the story of what happens when good science goes really wrong.  A group of scientists searching Bolivian rain forests for an ancient and elusive disease cure, make the mistake of allowing the military to get involved.  Those of us who read any amount of apocalyptic fiction know what a mistake that can be!  After nearly the whole team is destroyed by some sort of creatures who literally rip them limb from limb, Dr. Jonas Lear survives and is taken to a hidden military base in Colorado to use what they discovered to create some type of secret weapon for the US military.  Naturally, there is some mysterious breach in security, and the creatures they have created are set loose on the northern hemisphere.  Realize that these aren’t the sexy, glittery vampires who populate current bestsellers.  These are dark, hunched, muscular creatures with sharp clawed hands who can tear a person apart before they even realize they’re being attacked.  Add this that fact that one in ten victims transform into “virals,” and the world quickly becomes a place where the remaining humans are prey for the more powerful and horrific creatures.

“It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born.”

In the midst of the ensuing chaos, two people search for sanctuary:  FBI agent Brad Wolgast and six-year-old Amy, the last victim he delivered for experimentation to the compound in Colorado.  The first section of the book describes their flight to safety, and tells in detail what is transpiring in the world they are hiding from.  The next two parts of the book take place almost 100 years later, beginning in the Colony where a couple hundred survivors are barely scraping out a day-to-day existence, most of their energies directed toward keeping the virals outside their heavily fortified settlement.  Although Peter Jaxon always felt overshadowed by his older brother Theo, now he is the one who knows Amy may be the key to humanity’s survival when she stumbles up to the walled Colony one night while he is on Watch.

This epic adventure had me captured from the first chapter.  Cronin is a master storyteller, slowly exposing details without overloading the reader with unnecessary description.  His characters feel realistic–making impossible decisions in situations most of us would avoid completely–but aren’t impossibly heroic, rendering them implausible.  This book reminded me a little of Stephen King’s The Stand, in the sense of the ultimate battle between Good and Evil.  The action in non-stop, keeping readers riveted to the story long into the night.  This is the first in a proposed trilogy, but I didn’t feel left hanging at the end like you do with some titles.  I knew there was more to the story, but after nearly 800 pages, it felt like Cronin had given the readers a great beginning.

I would recommend this title to all horror and vampire fans, Stephen King fans, and devotees of apocalyptic fiction like Hunger Games, Oryx and Crake and The Stand.

The author will be visiting Berkeley next week at Books Inc. on Fourth St.  I’m hoping to be there and would encourage avid readers to join me!  There’s nothing like hearing a writer talk about their book and how it came to be.  He might even give us some hints about the next installment.

Mon, 07/19/2010 – 7:00pm  Justin Cronin

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

The BHS library will have its copies when you come back in the fall.

Here’s a short description from the Goodreads website:

Fans of The Twilight Saga will be enthralled by this riveting story of Bree Tanner, a character first introduced in Eclipse, and the darker side of the newborn vampire world she inhabits. In another irresistible combination of danger, mystery, and romance, Stephenie Meyer tells the devastating story of Bree and the newborn army as they prepare to close in on Bella Swan and the Cullens, following their encounter to its unforgettable conclusion.

Enjoy!

Marked

Marked by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

This is one of those books that will grab your interest on the very first page.  It tells the story of Zoey Redbird, who lives in a world that’s always had vampires.  When she finds herself “Marked”  by an exotic tatoo to become a vampyre, her whole world changes because now all her friends are afraid of her, and she has to transfer to the House of Night, a vampyre-in-training boarding school.  Life there is fast paced, with  Zoey  making new friends with the other fledging vamps, getting used to her new and strange classes (Vampyre Sociology), meeting the super hot Erik, and clashing with the two-faced Aphrodite, head of the exclusive Dark Daughters sorority.  The story moves on at a frantic pace, with each episode leading to the next, wivh enough uncertainty about the outcomes to keep the readers on the edge of  their seats.  I couldn’t put this book down and finished it in less than two  days.  I’ve ordered the entire series for the library; be sure to come by and check them out.

Here’s a book trailer you can look at from home.