Author Spotlight – Patricia Briggs

Written by Member Hybrid Ceature

 

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Author Name – Patricia Briggs
Who Are They – She was born in 1965 in Butte, Montana. She writes fantasy and urban fantasy. She published her first book in 1993.
Bibliography –
Sianim Series
Masques (1993)
Steal the Dragon (1995)
When Demons Walk (1998)
Wolfsbane (2010)
Shifter’s Wolf (Aralorn Novels) (2012) (Compilation of Masques and Wolfsbane)
Hurog Duology
Dragon Bones (2002)
Dragon Blood (2003)
Raven Duology
Raven’s Shadow (2004)
Raven’s Strike (2005)
Mercy Thompson Series
Moon Called (2006)
Blood Bound (2007)
Iron Kissed (2008)
Bone Crossed (2009)
Silver Borne (2010)
River Marked (2011).
Frost Burned (2013)
Night Broken (March 11, 2014)
Fire Touched (March 8, 2016)
Silence Fallen (March 2017)
Alpha& Omega Series
Cry Wolf (2008)
Hunting Ground (2009)
Fair Game (March 2012)
Dead Heat (March 3, 2015)
Stand Alone Novels
Hob’s Bargain (2001)
 
How I came across her –
I found her via a Goodreads top urban fantasy series list. The first book I tried was Moon Called.
What is your favorite work by her and why –
The Mercy Thompson series is definitely my favorite, even though I’ve liked everything else that I’ve read by her as well. Mercy Thompson is just such a great heroine. She’s tough as nails but not some pumped up, ultimate kick ass goddess like a lot of UF series portray their heroines. She’s more down to earth and real despite being able to shape shift into a coyote. The world building and werewolf pack interactions and laws all blend nicely together. Mercy breaking all those rules and laws is even better. I like rebellion.
Mixing fairy lore and mythology in a beautiful blend.
What is your favorite character –
I’ve already gushed about Mercy but the cast of characters surrounding her are all interesting and entertaining in their own ways. From vampires to werewolves to fae to mythological gods. The characters are never boring.
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Something else interesting about the author –
Some people are like Slinkies. They aren’t really good for anything, but they still bring a smile to my face when I push them down a flight of stairs.” – Iron Kissed
I think that says it all.

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Book Review – Strange Magic by James A. Hunter (This didn’t go down well )

Book Review from Hybrid Creature

 

23944302 Strange Magic (Yancy Lazarus #1) by James A. Hunter 

Yancy Lazarus is having a bad day: there’s a bullet lodged in his butt cheek, his face looks like the site of a demolition derby, and he’s been saran-wrapped to a banquet table. He never should have answered the phone. Stupid bleeding heart—helping others in his circles is a good way to get dead.

Just ask the gang members ripped to pieces by some kind of demonic nightmare in LA. As a favor to a friend, Yancy agrees to take a little looksee into the massacre and boom, he’s stuck in a turf war between two rival gangs, which both think he’s pinch-hitting for the other side. Oh, and there’s also a secretive ass-hat with some mean ol’ magical chops and a small army of hyena-faced, body- snatching baddies. It might be time to seriously reconsider some of his life choices.

Yancy is a bluesman, a rambler, a gambler, but not much more. Sure, he can do a little magic—maybe even more than just a little magic—but he knows enough to keep his head down and stay clear of freaky-deaky hoodoo like this business in LA. Somehow though, he’s been set up to take a real bad fall—the kind of very permanent fall that leaves a guy with a toe tag. Unless, of course, he can find out who is responsible for the gangland murders, make peace in the midst of the gang feud, and take out said magical ass-hat before he hexes Yancy into an early retirement. Easy right? Stupid. Bleeding. Heart.

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DNF @ 21%

This reads like a noir novel with 70’s lingo and shoddy world building. Those are the good points of this book, what I read of it anyway.

The main character is a ramblin’, gamblin’, mage in an el Camino with a magic system that is just there. That’s right, the magic is just conveniently interwoven with no real descriptions of just what the fuck it accomplishes. It just filters naturally through mages and gives them numerous benefits and no one knows why that is. It may be the lamest description of magic that I’ve ever read.

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But of course, because he can access magic, he’s the ultimate bad ass. He can wield said magic like it’s no one’s business. He is all powerful and whines a fucking lot. Nothing about him is even remotely interesting. Which leads to the problem with the plot line…

Why do I give two flying fucks that someone is out to get this asshole? Kill him already and give me a new character with some actual substance.

Side note: feels like a Dresden files rip off.

Sir Lancer Recommends – Episode #3 A Trilogy of Trilogies

Hidie Ho Neighbourinos!

Welcome to episode #3 of Sir Lancer Recommends!

The number three comes up a lot in the world of readers. So I figured for episode three we would focus on a trilogy. Actually, a trilogy of trilogies! and another trilogy! Kinda!

The first trilogy I am going to direct you towards has come up in a couple of Dragons and Jetpacks threads recently, and that is the Silo Trilogy by Hugh Howey.

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Continue reading “Sir Lancer Recommends – Episode #3 A Trilogy of Trilogies”

Bloodline Gypsy by Shirley A. Martin (Members Review from Shawnie)

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Bloodline Gypsy: Jook and Gypsies Vol. 1 by Shirley A. Martin, published June 29, 2013 by Authorhouse.

Goodreads Blurb:

A supernatural thriller of chilling carnage and primal beauty, Bloodling Gypsy unearths the origin of a mythical creature that has plagued history since the dark ages. Tracing an inherent line of magic back to Eygpt in 981 AD, this dark fantasy reveals the mysterious link between gypsies and werewolves. A yoke that, twelve hundred years later, reveals itself in the form of a birthmark stamped on children born of Louvari descent. When Susannah Henika loses her mother in a tragic accident, she moves to a mountain resort town to live with a father she has never known. She falls victim to night terrors and an impending sense of dread. She meets a woman in the woods, Madalina Sadrinovic, whose uncanny ways set Susannah ill at ease. Strange and foreboding events follow the arrival of Madalins’s twin brother Luca, and a local boy goes missing. The American teenager befins to suspect that, somehow linked to the strange markings on her hand. She may be one of the last remaining humans, genetically predestined to bare the offspring of an altered species, a distant ancestor forged into the world.

★★★★

Continue reading “Bloodline Gypsy by Shirley A. Martin (Members Review from Shawnie)”

Sir Lancer Recommends – Episode #2

 

Hello Again Everyone!

 

Sorry that it has taken me a while to get around to episode #2 of sir Lancer Recommends but unfortunately I have been rather busy with school. With that being said let’s get to it!

Without further adieu I recommend to you Skullcrack City by Jeremy Robert Johnson. This is a standalone sci-fi bizarro thriller with a lot of comedy elements. I have to admit I was instantly drawn to it by its cover and the blurb that sounded like it was conceived on acid trip. Continue reading “Sir Lancer Recommends – Episode #2”

Book of the Month Review Fantasy May -Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Review by our Member Kimberley de Jong

For our first review of last month we have a very positive look at what proved to be a popular choice. Other reviews will follow –

 

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5/5.
Uprooted carried great promises with it, and to me, those promises were met. Inspired by folklore, this fantasy fairy tale did well to grasp me in its roots (badumtsjj) and carried me through the pages in a breeze. The descriptions of environment, characters and storytelling left a deep impression on me. Continue reading “Book of the Month Review Fantasy May -Uprooted by Naomi Novik”

Review – Red Seas under Red Skies by Scott Lynch (Members review from Hybrid Creature)

Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

Rating – 

BLURB – After a brutal battle with the underworld that nearly destroyed him, Locke and his trusted sidekick, Jean, fled the island city of their birth and landed on the exotic shores of Tal Verrar to nurse their wounds. But even at this westernmost edge of civilization, they can’t rest for long — and are soon back to what they do best: stealing from the undeserving rich and pocketing the proceeds for themselves. Continue reading “Review – Red Seas under Red Skies by Scott Lynch (Members review from Hybrid Creature)”

Review – Too like the lightning: Terra Ignota #1 by Ada Palmer (Members review from Raven)

Publication Date: May 10, 2016

Publisher: Tor Books

   Blurb: Mycroft Canner is a convict. For his crimes he is required, as is the custom of the 25th century, to wander the world being as useful as he can to all he meets. Carlyle Foster is a sensayer–a spiritual counselor in a world that has outlawed the public practice of religion, but which also knows that the inner lives of humans cannot be wished away. Continue reading “Review – Too like the lightning: Terra Ignota #1 by Ada Palmer (Members review from Raven)”

Sir Lancer Recommends – Music Edition

Hello Again Everyone!

Welcome to Sir Lancer Recommends Special Music Episode! In the last year or two I have become acquainted with chiptune music. It basically mixes sounds that could be found during the era of 8 and 16 bit gaming. So for all of you that grew up playing NES and SNES like me this will be right in your wheel house. Like old video games? Like old JRPG’s? Well then be prepared to have nostalgiagasms beamed directly into your brain!  Continue reading “Sir Lancer Recommends – Music Edition”

Sir Lancer Recommends #1

This post was contributed by one of our members, Lancer, fondly known as Sir Lancer!

Welcome one and all to Sir Lancer Recommends! I have been wrangled in and convinced (thank you Hybrid and everyone else) to starting my super awesome recommendations thread.

To get things off and running I am going to have begin by recommending what you all know I was going to. So my first official recommendation is May’s Book of the Month: Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding.

6285903 Continue reading “Sir Lancer Recommends #1”