A Weegie, a Hob, and a Druid Take on Havoc Down Under (Paper & Blood urban fantasy REVIEW)

A very proper Scottish sexagenarian (well, if by “proper” one means at some point in time around the early-to-mid-twentieth-century), who favors an old-fashioned suit, hat, and cane, sports an impressive moustache, and is well-schooled in a field of magical arts known as sigil-making [more on that later]. Goes by the rather-impressive moniker, Al MacBharrais.

A wee hob (as in “hobgoblin”), who might only be taken for a (very) sunburned “little person” by someone who’d had a few too many tipples o’ the Scotch (or Irish, or really, too many tipples of anything), is overly-fond of all mischief-making (including, sadly, larceny), loves whiskey (and loves salsa, even more), and has a helpful (if uncanny) ability to sort of “poof” from one place to another, for brief periods of time. That would be Al’s assistant, Buck Foi [and you’ll need to swap a couple of letters and say it out loud to catch the self-named hob’s bit of tomfoolery, there].

A fabulously-tatted, tough-as-nails pugilist-cum-accountant (who is also sorta something else… although the precise nature of that is a bit in the air), and drives a decked-out wizard van. She’s Nadia.

And, finally [really, isn’t that enough, for now?], a pleasantly-prim, middle-aged manager who somehow schedules Al’s workload, puts up with Buck’s hijinks, and always produces coffees and danishes at the exact right moment. We know her as “Gladys-Who-Has-Seen-Some-Shite” [I kid you not].

Throw ‘em all together and what do you have? The second outing in Kevin Hearne’s nifty little “Ink & Sigil” series, [the somewhat-ominously-titled] Paper & Blood. [And by the way, if you haven’t already read the first in the series, please check out the review for Ink & Sigil, here.]

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When Al receives an urgent communique from one of his fellow sigil-maker’s apprentices, saying her mentor has gone missing in Australia—and his subsequent messages to the other three sigil masters in their small global group confirms that a similar fate has also befallen one of them (in a failed attempt to track down the first missing maker, no less)—he grabs Buck, leaves business in the capable hands of Nadia and Gladys(-who-has…), and arranges for a fairy-aided trip Down Under. 

Once there—and once armed with a few weapons (plenty of the aforementioned sigils, which help protect regular humans, such as Al, from all sorts of fae spells and powerful creatures who seek to do him harm) and a kitted-out wizard van (courtesy of Buck, of course) for navigating the outback—the intrepid duo pick up the scared apprentice and set out for parts wild. 

Which, as fate would have it, is when things get really, truly, actually wild.

It isn’t their run-of-the-mill monster meanies, this time. Some… thing, insanely-powerful, has somehow cobbled together the craziest and most bloodthirsty creatures—beings straight out of a child’s worst nightmares—whose sole purposes seem to be killing every single human in their paths (including several hapless hikers). 

Luckily [or not?], an old acquaintance of Al’s shows up in the midst of all the mayhem… none other than the fearsome Iron Druid, Atticus O’Sullivan [who apparently features in earlier works by the author], along with his “good dugs” [that’s “good dogs” for those of us not Scottish], the druid-worthy (and telepathic!) hounds, Oberon and Starbuck, to help out.

Will this be the one thing to bring down the centuries-old druid… not to mention, Al, Buck, and… well, a few other surprise visitors they pick up along the way? Or will the motley-but-scrappy little group of would-be heroes be able to put aside their differences and histories long enough to battle the purest evil seen on earth in… basically ever?

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Paper & Blood is, first off, deliciously-imaginative and chuckle-out-loud funny. Al and Buck’s relationship (much like Buck and Nadia’s, or Al and Gladys’s) is a real hoot, and continues to provide genuine comedic gold. 

There's a good bit more world building here, too, which gives the story, and the space these characters inhabit, greater depth.

Then there’s the care that Hearne takes to preface each book with a very helpful pronunciations-and-meanings guide, which is not only useful, but makes reading that much more fun. [Yes, it takes me longer to read these books, because I’m actually stopping and mentally saying the words correctly… but I promise, if you’re not Scottish—and really, how many of us can say we are?—doing so adds immeasurably to the experience.]

If I had to nit-pick, though, I can do that easily enough, too. Paper & Blood uses storytelling as a plot device—meaning, the characters tell stories to the others—which, frankly, drag on. And on. (And onnnnnnn.) Whenever one of them told another story, I usually wound up skimming those passages (after realizing the point was going to be a very long time in coming). It isn’t that the stories aren’t interesting, or that they fail to add to the theme of the book, because they are, and they do; the problem is that they needed to be whittled down. [And suddenly, I’m realizing how probably Every. Single. One. of my friends probably feels when I’m telling a story… Yikes.]

That one minor issue aside, though, I found Paper & Blood to be a very good entry in a series that delivers something really fresh, fun, and fantastic in the urban fantasy realm… and I can hardly wait to see what Al, Buck, et al, get up to next.

~GlamKitty