Twin Non-Laughter Twin Reviews: UF / PARANORMAL

BLOODY GOOD by Georgia Evans (Paranormal)
Book 1 in Brytewood Trilogy

DOOMSDAY CAN WAIT by Lori Handeland (Urban Fantasy)
Book 2 in Liz Phoenix Chronicles


Premise
1. Vampires collaborating with the Nazis parachute into rural WWII Britain, and it falls to the supernatural among the villagers to thwart their plans.

2. Bartender turned epic supernatural warrior seeks to avert the Apocalypse with help from like-minded beings.

Cover
1. Folkloric art reminiscent of Marc Chagall's style is oddly appealling. Title is a pun as well as pointing to British setting; Books 2 & 3 in the trilogy are 'BloodyAwful' and 'Bloody Right'.

2. Typical urban fantasy female protagonist cover: seen partly from the back, skin-baring top, jeans, equipped with a weapon, only thing missing is a tattoo. Nothing wrong with the art, but nothing distinctive, either. What is clever is the title; Book 1 was 'Any Given Doomsday' and Book 3 'Apocalypse Happens'.

What Works
1. Apprentice Writer has read a great deal of non-fiction about WWII; for obvious reasons, educators take the topic very seriously in Germany, where AW went to high school. She has not read much fiction, though, and that was from the civilian German population's point of view. So a story from a fictitious British civilian POV captured her interest. The descriptions of village life, with people pulling together to combat bombing damage, disruption of regular life due to influx of city dwellers escaping urband danger, and deprivations calling for a black market were evocative. Also enjoyable was the diversity of Others (as they are called in Brytewood) and how they are both forced to recognize their Otherness and reach out to one another despite ingrained habits of either denial or secrecy for the sake of self-preservation. Apart from the Teutonic vampires plus a homegrown one, there is a Dragon, a were-fox, a fairy, and some Pixies. How pixies are different from fairies, elves, or imps she still does not know; perhaps this is explored in future volumes.

2. AW is not very widely read in urban fantasy, and she enjoyed getting her feet more wet in the subgenre, getting to know the various beings, and learning how their individual gifts applied. In AW's opinion, UF authors are among the most imaginative people of all. Her favorite character in the story was a young lionesque shapeshifter whom the heroine hopes to recruit into her army of evil-opposers. His backstory is tragic and lonely, and the theme of oppression experienced due to otherness which he can't help meted out by closed-minded 'regular' people threatened by anyone different from them lent a kind of X-men flavor to the story.

What Doesn't
1. AW won both these titles through the collaborative generosity of Writerspace.com and the authors. It is ironic that of all possible people, 'Bloody Good' went to someone who caught the German errors. Not a big deal, and AW actually gives full marks for effort of inclusion of the German snippets, but she made a mental note to herself to always (ALWAYS) have a native speaker check the complete sentences in future manuscripts because in many foreign languages, it is not enough to know the straight translation of the root word. It's correct conjugation may depend on grammatical context, identity of the speaker, and relationship to speakee.

There is much introspection on the part of the vampires as to their innate superiority. Consequently, it was puzzling why one would be defeated by an electric fence (given ability to fly) and the final battle seemed somewhat anticlimactic. Perhaps the battles in future volumes will progress in intensity.

Finally, readers who like loose ends tied up may be frustrated that the explanation of why vampires would ally themselves with a political party is not answered in this volume.

2. This is Book 2 in the series. Though enough backstory was provided for AW to be able to follow along, there is one significant aspect where it is possible that beginning with Book 1 may have made her more willing to accept the worldbuilding altogether. As it was, disclosure of how the heroine gains additional powers released a near fatal 'Oh, come on, now' response.

MODERATE SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!(for Book 1; if you've read it you're safe)

Imagine, if you will, the standard methods of infection: airborne (as in the common cold), congenital (as in a mother passing HIV on to her unborn baby), introduction to bloodstream via transfusions, wounds, or needles inserted into veins (as in hepatitis), and sexual transmission. One guess as to how things work for Liz Phoenix.

Released all sorts of incredulous questions: does the power transfer still work if a barrier method of contraception is used? Does any type of sexual act qualify? What if the person hoping to gain powers is attracted to others of their own gender?
In the end, AW decided the answers didn't matter to her; willingness to suspend disbelief had been well and truly punctured.

END SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The heroine also tends to go on about her irritation that a male character (who is in himself fascinating) is involved with so many women. Not a characteristic AW finds appealling in a man, however at the same time that Liz is grousing about this she herself is involved with him as well as another supernatural male character. If it hadn't been for The Big Turnoff (described in spoiler), AW may have simply accepted Liz' blindness to her own hypocrisy as a human flaw. As it was, the combination proved too much for this reader.

Overall
1. An entertaining tale set in a fictitiously unusual time period.

2. For readers who can live with the heroine's method of self-improvement, this could well be an entertaining, action-packed series. Readers who can't may wish to seek urban fantasy set in other worlds.



Learn more about the authors here:

http://aftermidnightfantasies.com/georgia.htm

http://www.lorihandeland.com/