It Would Have Been Better with *Less* Magic

Bone Gap - Laura Ruby

The people around town called Finn O’Sullivan a lot of nicknames, most of them because of how he seemed so… distracted. Finn had plenty of reasons to be distracted, reasons like being deserted by his mother and the simple fact of being seventeen. But right now, he was distracted because Roza had disappeared: Roza, the beautiful Polish girl who’d just suddenly appeared in the O'Sullivan's barn one morning and had subsequently captured the hearts of everyone in Bone Gap, Illinois – especially the heart belonging to Finn’s older brother, Sean. And then she disappeared, and Finn simply couldn’t describe the man who had taken her, the mysterious man who moved like corn stalks waving in the wind.

Finn also found himself distracted by the beekeeper’s daughter, Priscilla Willis (who vastly preferred the name "Petey"). He thought her beautiful, even though everyone else thought her… strange-looking; homely, even. Petey was, however, the only one in Bone Gap who understood Finn’s distraction and his confusion, perhaps because Finn distracted and confused her, too. 

Mo Speaks (This Machine Kills Demons!)

The Annihilation Score - Charles Stross

It used to be that your local library (for you millennials, that's a building filled with books patrons can borrow for a couple of weeks) had a shelf or two of “science fiction.” In olden days, the books were about adventures in space and on alien planets. Some bright (not!) librarian decided to combine science fiction with fantasy: soon the shelves were overrun with sword-and-sorcery tales, many of them strangely similar to Tolkein adventures – you know, fellowships, talismans, epic struggles of good and evil; that rot. Now, even worse, the shelves are chock full of vampire and werewolf tales, far too many of them in the sub-sub-subgenre of VampRom.

But there is hope, albeit with a Lovecraftian bent (you kids who don’t know who H. P. Lovecraft was, head for Wikipedia…): Charlie Stross and the Laundry Files. File number six, The Annihilation Score, is now available.

When last we saw Dominique “Mo” O’Brien and Bob Howard, they had decided on a trial separation. It’s not that the two aren’t in love, it’s that their jobs – in the strange world of The Laundry – make them want to kill each other. Luckily (?) for Mo, she has a new assignment, one that (in theory) means she doesn’t need to unlimber her demon-killing bone violin, "Lecter." I told you it was Lovecraftian…

Pittacus Backtracks to Fill Some Plot Holes: "The Navigator"

I Am Number Four: The Lost Files: The Navigator - Pittacus Lore

Among all the tangled plotlines of the so-called Lorien Legacies series, there have always been open plot holes. Take, for instance, the sudden appearance – out of nowhere – of Crayton and Ella in… who knows which of the ‘leventy or so novellas so far? Or the dozens of chimerae [sic] held captive by the Mogadorians in their West Virginia base. Or the mysterious tall, dusky woman who shows up in… another book; or at the end of one tale, as the nine Garde flee their doomed home, there’s brief mention of a second ship. Well, Pittacus Lore (in reality the writing team of Jobie Hughes [maybe, or perhaps another ghostwriter] and James Frey ) are nothing if not inventive, once again doubling back in their plotline to fill in the holes. This time, it’s the startlingly out-of-sequence The Navigagtor.

Romantic Mayhem that Falls Flat

Inviting Fire - Emily Kimelman

It’s tough dropping into a mystery-thriller series at the sixth book. I wouldn’t recommend it, actually, but only book number six in the Sidney Rye series was offered free, and I don’t pay for self-published books. Not even 99¢… Inviting Fire was free, but it still was’t a bargain.

In case you aren’t aware of the series, Emily Kimelman’s Sidney Rye is… well, I’m still not quite sure what she is even after having read the entire book. I think she’s supposed to be an avenging angel, since the group she helped found, Joyful Justice, seems to like to kill people it considers “bad.” Of course, this being 2015, bad people are human traffickers, just as they’d have been cartel sicarios ten years ago. Whatever.