Caden O'Brien's Website

What would real people do if they suddenly found themselves turned into vampires or other supernatural beings? Or if they met one of these beings in the course or ordinary or extraordinary events? Ever since I was a kid, I thought “I know these things don’t exist, but what if…?” I like to think of myself as somewhat grounded in reality, but I also have that “but what if” question in the back of my mind. I just really want to believe I guess.

My favorite books tend to be those that walk the edge of fantasy and reality. They deal with ordinary people in the ordinary world, but there’s a twist. Magical and supernatural elements abide alongside the mundane world. You might be an ordinary 9-to-5 person with no special talents, but your boss is a vampire. Or a werewolf pack lives on the edge of town and they run all the security and law enforcement operations. Or the evil government took special forces soldiers, and experimented on them until a variety of psychic talents were enhanced. Having things like this in your life can have a dramatic impact! The stories focus on real people dealing with extraordinary things, and they react much like you or I would do. The fantasy is realistic.

Jeri Smith-Ready does a fabulous job in blending the real with the supernatural. I’ve just read the first two books in her WVMP Series, Wicked Game and Bad to the Bone.

Here’s the storyline from the author’s website:

Recovering con artist Ciara Griffin is trying to live the straight life, even if it means finding a (shudder!) real job. She takes an internship at a local radio station, whose late-night time-warp format features 1940s blues, 60s psychedelia, 80s Goth, and more, all with an uncannily authentic flair. Ciara soon discovers how the DJs maintain their cred: they’re vampires, stuck forever in the eras in which they were turned.

Ciara’s first instinct, as always, is to cut and run. But communications giant Skywave wants to buy WVMP and turn it into just another hit-playing clone. Without the station—and the link it provides to their original Life Times—the vampires would “fade,” becoming little more than mindless ghosts of the past. Suddenly a routine corporate takeover becomes a matter of life and un-death.

Ciara is a tough gal. Twenty-four years old and trying to make it in the legit world by getting a college degree, she was raised by grifter parents who moved every two weeks. Relationships, honesty, and commitment are not part of her psyche. She’s got a dead-eyed cynical view of the world and its inhabitants, supernatural or not. Told from her viewpoint, she is foul-mouthed and funny, and I found myself laughing out loud at many of the situations she found herself in. For example, her first intimate encounter with future-love-interest Shane (a young grunge-era vampire) resulted in him taking a huge chomp out of her thigh, which caused her to viciously kick him in the head with her other leg. His resulting jerk-back causes a lot of flesh-ripping which causes a lot of bleeding, which requires stitches… Shane runs off into the night. Now, in a typical romance book, the assault would have caused her multiple orgasms and an instant bonding to her attacker, who would nobly turn her into a vampire so that they could have mind-blowing sex for eternity. But this isn’t fairy-tale land.

Smith-Ready’s worldbuilding is superb. She poses a unique view of vampire life, and it’s not happy-camperland for the vamps. Yes, they are beautiful, alluring, super-strong, super-fast, and super-sexual. But something bad starts happening after they are created, and it just gets worse as they age: they fade. Over time they become less human, while at the same time the vampiric traits get stronger. If they lose their connection to their Life Time, fading is even faster because they have difficulty connecting to the present time. They can’t learn new things or form real relationships. The world is so confusing to them, they develop obsessive/compulsive behaviors to try to cope with things they can’t control. They become extremely flammable, and they burn like paper (humans burn like wood). Even though they’re technically immortal, the average vamp only lives about 80 years after their turning. It’s heart-rending to see them struggle.

At first Ciara wants nothing to do with these freaks, but because she’s a good person at heart (and she really needs the job) she throws her lot in with the vamps and cooks up a scam, er, plan, to save the radio station and the sanctuary it provides the vamps. She re-brands the station as “The Life-blood of Rock n Roll” and promotes the Vampire DJ angle. Almost no-one believes they’re real, of course, but the campaign is a huge success. Her relationship with Shane is rocky – he’s young enough to be still quite human and he loves her, but she’s afraid of it. As they work through the difficulties, they have the inevitable fading problem hanging over their heads, except they don’t know how fast it will happen or whether Ciara’s efforts to save Shane will help avoid it. In spite of these unique problems, their relationship is like any other couple getting off to a tough start. It’s believable, and because we care about the characters, it pulls at the heartstrings.

The bad guys work hard to destroy the vamps and Ciara too, and there’s good action in both books. These are not strictly romance books, so there’s more character development and action to move the plot along. These books are on my keeper shelf and I can’t wait for the third installment, Bring On The Night, which will be out in August 2010.

Smith-Ready is an obvious musicphile, and the book comes with a lot of playlists of the tunes the DJ’s play. Her website includes a great music player with all the tunes from the books on it, and I was thrilled at how many of them were in my personal library. I also found a lot of tracks that I haven’t heard in years, so I happily added them to my collection.  Great stories and good music totally do it for me. If you also like books and music, check out Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville series. She’s a DJ werewolf, and the books are also realistic fantasy. Rock on!

• Wicked Game
• Bad to the Bone
• Bring on the Night (August 2010)
• tentatively titled Lust for Life (early Spring 2011)

I love a man in uniform…

There’s something about well written stories about Navy SEALS and other non-paranormal supermen that gets my blood racing, and Susan Brockmann’s Troubleshooters Inc. series fits the bill perfectly.

My hat’s off to Ms. Brockmann for the detailed telling of life in the Navy SEALS, and enough detail about the missions they’re on to make it very realistic. Whether it’s 100% accurate or not I don’t know, but the stories are fleshed out enough to be believable and thrilling. The Navy SEALS are an awesome group of guys, and they don’t publicize themselves much so it’s fun to get the scoop on their doin’s through well written fiction.

What do I like about this series? Well, the stories have both action and characters. One without the other is boring. The former will read like to to-do list, and the latter will stagnate into a treatise on navel-gazing if not done well. I like books that combine both.

I like books with hot, smart, and funny guys and I like sex in my books. Nothing like living vicariously! I’m an adult, and I know that adults have sex. I like good romantica and I’m not squeamish. The sex scenes in these books are very well done – romantic and sexy and … oooooh! I love these guys. There is even a story arc with a gay hero (the oh-so-hot Jules Cassidy) that is wonderfully done. Funny about liking a gay hero and rooting for his HEA (happily-ever-after)! Hey, hot is hot. It’s a good story. And tastefully done, for those who may worry that there’s too much raw gayness here. Not so. And no multi-partner sex either, for those who worry about such things.

The dialog is witty. If I can insert a criticism, it would be that Ms. Brockmann’s formula at times is a bit too formulaic… characters tend to have the same off-the-wall sense of humor (which I happen to love, so I can’t possibly OD on it!). But I think she’s put enough variety in her characters to minimize this. Many of the situations and dialog are hilarious at times. Like I said, I love these guys.

There’s lots of “male perspective” in the stories. I like that. It takes two (at least!) to romance, and I like seeing both sides of the story. Ms. Brockmann has an excellent command of the young & hot male viewpoint, and relates their stories with great humor and detail.

All is not hearts and flowers. The trio of Navy Seals, Troubleshooters, and FBI counterterrorist operators deal with some serious shit with terrorists and other psychos. Bad things happen to good people, and its not pretty.  But, it’s realistic.

The storyline is that Navy SEALS Lt. Commander Tom Paoletti, upon leaving the Navy following an injury and political BS that stick him behind a desk, forms a private security and anti-terrorist company called Troubleshooters, Inc. A number of his SEALS join him in his new company, and the SEALS Team 16 continues to work with Tom and his company on various assignments. As do the FBI counterterrorist unit headed by Max Bhagat. Most of the books thus have 3 storylines involving characters from each of these units, plus a number of them also have a “retro” romance from the WWII era involving a grandparent of one of the main characters. There is a threat – to national security, world peace, etc. – that over-arcs the book and results in all kinds of tumult.

The stories are tightly written and the pacing is great. They are hard to put down once you’ve started!

• The Unsung Hero - June 2000
• The Defiant Hero – March 2001
• Over The Edge – September 2001
• Out Of Control – March 2002
• Into The Night – December 2002
• Gone Too Far – July 2003
• Flashpoint – March 2004
• Hot Target – December 2004
• Breaking Point – July 2005
• Into The Storm – August 2006
• Force Of Nature – August 2007
• All Through The Night – October 2007
• Into The Fire – July 2008
• Dark Of Night – January 2009
• Hot Pursuit – July 2009

I’ve been a fan of Peter Straub’s since I first read Mystery back in 1990. Although I’ve seen him characterized as a “horror” writer, I’ve always thought his books had much more of a mystery/ghost story kind of feel to them than most horror books I’ve read. I know he’s co-written several books with Stephen King (and I haven’t read those books) but don’t know if those work are more typical of the horror genre than Straub’s solo works. Whatever the case, I just finished his 2003 publication Lost Boy, Lost Girl and give it an enthusiastic multi-thumbs-up.

A character that has appeared in several of Straub’s previous works (Koko, Mystery, The Throat), Tim Underhill, provides the viewpoint for much of the book. Underhill is a writer in New York City but hails from Millhaven, Illinois. At the start of the book, he’s gone back there for the sad funeral of his sister in law who committed suicide in a most determined way – using 3 pretty much fool-proof techniques to get the job done. Tim puzzles on the death, even though he knows that marriage to Tim’s bitter and disgruntled younger brother can’t have been easy.  It was Tim’s beautiful and sensitive 15 year old nephew Mark who found the body.

A week later, Tim returns to Millhaven because Mark has gone missing. The only clues lie in an abandoned and very creepy house behind Mark’s home – a house that captivated the boy and has a great deal to do with his disappearance.  A mysterious girl that no one but Mark seems to have seen also plays a role. On top of the scary doings at the house, a serial killer is cutting a swathe through the local teenage population, so tension is high.

Another character from previous books is Tom Pasmore, the brilliant and eccentric detective from Mystery and The Throat, plays a secondary role here. As Tim struggles to find out what happened to Mark, the feeling of evil stalking the innocent ramps up the scariness factor. I have to admit, I was reading this at night and there were parts that were so creepy I had the put the book down until daylight. LOL!

A twist in this book is the device of the unreliable narrator. While the creep factor is high and Tim’s anguish over Mark’s disappearance is genuine, there are many points when I wondered just exactly WHAT was I seeing here. Was everything as it was told to me as I read it, or could Tim be wrong on some points?? There’s an instance near the beginning where Tim is convinced he sees a murder taking place, only to find out that its a movie being filmed…

There’s a sequel to this book, In the Night Room, that I haven’t read yet.

Like all the books I like, Lost Boy, Lost Girl dragged me into another world. The scare factor was great, and the poignancy of a sensitive teen dealing with so much tragedy hits hard. I loved Mark, and his best buddy Jimbo, and found myself wanting to adopt them (thus breaking my kids-must-have-four-legs rule). Straub writes a great tale.

Synopsis: “The Quantum Bomb of 2015 changed everything. The fabric that kept the universe’s different dimensions apart was torn and now, six years later, the people of earth exist in uneasy company with inhabitants of, among others, the elven, elemental, and demonic realms. Magic is real and can be even more dangerous than technology. Elves are exotic, erotic, dangerous and really bored with the constant Lord of the Rings references. Elementals are a law unto themselves, and demons are best left well to themselves. Special agent Lila Black used to be pretty, but now she’s not so sure. Her body is now more than half restless carbon and metal alloy machinery – a machine she’s barely in control of. It goes into combat mode, enough weapons for a small army springing from within itself, at the merest provocation. As for her heart … well ever since being drawn into a Game by the elven rock star she’s been assigned to protect, she’s not even sure she can trust that anymore either.”–BOOK JACKET.

This series, which starts off in the year 2021, is a bit of a hybrid between science fiction and urban fantasy/paranormal fiction. It has more relationship stuff than is typical for sci fi, but much less than a paranormal romance story. So if you’re a die-hard fan of either genre, you might be disappointed.

In the first book, Keeping It Real, our heroine Lila Black was saved from death by the earth’s (called Otopia here) government, which invested a half a billion dollars in her high-tech cyborg body. Still trying to adjust to her new body and the trauma of her assault while on a mission in Aelfheim (the elf world), not to mention the loss of her family who were told she was killed on the mission, she is assigned to protect rock-star elf Zal.  Zal is an anomaly, since everyone knows that “elves don’t rock.” But this one does, and he thinks he doesn’t need protection from the death treats that he’s been getting.

Earth as we know it is different. Magic is known to exist and creatures from the other dimensions – fairies, ghosts, demons, etc. – interact with humans in varying degrees with varying results. The worlds are well-defined and make me wish I could visit them! The Elf world is Aelfheim, rich with magic in its non-tech, garden-like existence. Earth/Otopia is in a young alliance with Aelfheim, but both sides are still feeling their way. Demonia is a color-saturated beautiful world where the demons, also magic-users, live. Faery, land of the fairies, has welcomed tourists from early on.  Zoomenon is the world of the elementals, and not much is known about it. Thanopia is the land of the dead, and no one who goes there ever comes back.

The other books in the series thus far are Selling Out, Going Under, and Chasing the Dragon. By the end of the first book, Lila and Zal are lovers. Things start to look as though they’re not what they appear to be, and the tension increases. What are the various governments hiding? Who are the good guys? Author Justina Robson builds a fascinating mystery around skilful and detailed world-building.  Her writing focuses on some fairly broad themes that she’s covered in her previous publications:  the whole idea of identity,  loyalty, revenge, and love.

These books aren’t puff pieces, as Robson’s sci fi orientation makes them a bit more complicated reading than you’d find in for example a romance novel. Ideas are expressed a bit more subtly. I’ve seen reviews that complain about the sex in the stories, but in my opinion I think these were sci fi fans who don’t “do relationships.” I found that the relationships and sex scenes were underplayed relative to world- and plot-development, but there’s still quite a bit of sizzle between the characters. Just don’t expect any throbbing, dripping body parts.

Once I clicked onto the way Robson writes, I was totally buried in the worlds and the stories. I love Lila Black, a woman who’s whole life has been upended through no fault of her own and who is trying to carve out a place for herself in the new reality. It’s not always easy going, as she’s a damaged soul who doesn’t have a lot of experience in doing what’s she’s been assigned to do. She’s always trusted those in authority, but she’s beginning to see that she doesn’t have the whole story and in fact is probably being manipulated and lied to to serve some mysterious end. Zal is sexy and conflicted, as he too starts to think that everything he thinks he knows may not be true. The journey to the truth is fascinating, violent, and treacherous, and I’m totally hooked on this series!

I would have preferred to have had more detail on the hows and whys of Zal and Lila’s relationship. It’s handled a bit abruptly, and it just sort of appears. Still a great read though, and I can’t wait for the next book in the series!