The Literate Kitty

The job market is TOUGH. So what’s a recent college grad to do, armed with a shiny degree in whatever, saddled with a mountain of debt... and finding few—if any—job prospects?   Go to work for a secretive multinational corporation dealing in “problem-solving”... essentially, a “fixer” for issues no one dares talk about, outside of hushed boardrooms?    You bet.   And then one day, make a deal with what may be an  actual  agent of Hell... all for the sake of a promotion?   I mean, sure, that's a plan.   Of course, such deals never come without a few strings... as one young man quickly discovers in Mark Waddell’s darkly-satirical take on climbing the corporate ladder,  Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World .     After several years of feeling like the lowest man on the totem pole in Dark Enterprises’ Human Resources department, earnest, cardigan-clad Colin receives the dreaded notice: he has one week to fix his latest screw-up, or f...

One mischievous hobgoblin... on the brink of falling in love. One warrior queen... set on founding her own cult. One (former) goddess of death—now trying out life as a human—who thinks online dating is the way to go. One (seemingly) ordinary secretary who... well, is actually known as “Gladys Who Has Seen Some Shite” (although the “shite” in question remains unmentioned, so... who knows?).   And, one Glaswegian septuagenarian skilled in ink-and-sigil work (basically, magic spells made by using special inks and symbols)... whose job it is to keep the gods above, and all manner of fae creatures hiding in plain sight here in the human world down below, in line.    Together, they’re about to face what may be their greatest challenge, yet: finally figuring out who placed the twin curses on Al MacBharrais’ (the aforementioned septuagenarian) balding head... curses which killed off numerous apprentices, over the years, and caused his entire family to shun him, for no reason. ...

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-...

Maybe it’s a worldwide “Boomerization”, or maybe it’s simply that as seasoned writers age, they lean more toward writing characters who reflect their own well-earned years, rather than attempting to vicariously recapture fleeting youth through much younger ones. Whatever, it’s fascinating how many books have crossed my path, recently, that feature older protagonists. ( Perhaps I should view this as a positive, like getting older won’t automatically be so bad..?? ) Anyway, that brings us to what has to be one of the most delightfully fun “oldsters” I’ve read about in a long time… the very Scottish (and rather proper) Al MacBharrais, in Kevin Hearne’s new spin-off from his popular fantasy series, Ink & Sigil (From the World of the Iron Druid Chronicles) .  _______________ Al MacBharrais is one of only a handful of people in the entire world who can cast spells via sigils (think of them as handwritten words and symbols on paper, penned with enchanted inks [the creation of whic...

The world has done a completely-insane, spin-and-180-twist move on its axis during the first three months of 2020 due to the global coronavirus pandemic, leaving the vast majority of us feeling some combination of nervous/anxious/uncertain about… well, basically EVERYthing. Thank goodness for books, right? (I mean, as long as you’re not reading about deadly contagions, plagues, or biological warfare, which… yeah, no .) Long before (we’re talking WEEKS) things got really bad here in the U.S., though, I’d started a book—an Urban Fantasy tale by an author I’d never read—which sounded like a mindless, light diversion from all of the usual, non-scary-deadly-virus stuff that currently has me on edge. So, why haven’t I finished the book? What’s to blame—the awful COVID19 crisis? A rash of debilitating migraines? No, actually the disappointing issue is that the book in question—R.J. Blain’s Playing with Fire —is just so mind-numbingly awful that weeks later, I STILL can’t force m...

After not reading a single book for two months— Say whaaat, girl? (I know, weird, huh… but believe it or not, sometimes it’s even possible to get burned out on that most lovely of pastimes)—my choice of return to the written word was a little… well, unexpected. How so, you ask (no doubt still trying to wrap your brain around the multi-month moratorium)? Because I opted for an urban fantasy—no, that’s not the fascinating part—the sort of UF that I thought I’d already read waaaay too many of, in the past… you know, where everyone involved is barely legal, impossibly beautiful (or insanely, bodice-rippingly hunky), and, oh yeah, somehow manages to solve crimes (stop bad guys, save the world, prevent the apocalypse, etc.). Or, at least that’s what I thought I was getting myself into, after opening the cover of Annette Marie’s Three Mages and a Margarita … which, while definitely a bit of all the above, surprisingly turned out to be way more fun, and a lot more interesting, than...

There comes a time when things must end. It’s one of those inescapable truths and, as humans—keenly aware of our own mortality—we get this. But carbon life forms don’t hold a monopoly on the concept; eventually, everything hits a point of being past its prime. Most of us hope to reach a place of some decrepitude before it’s time to stop walking this mortal coil. (Being “old” is sorta the goal, for most humans.) Big-ticket items such as computers, phones, and cars are all designed with an expected obsolescence built in (which typically has more to do with corporations making money than with a sudden lack of functionality or usefulness, but I digress…). When it comes to series, though—whether books, movie franchises, or TV shows—the object is definitely to go out on a high note… before whatever-it-is seems tired and long-in-the-tooth. And that notion is what kept popping into my mind when reading Night and Silence , the latest in Seanan McGuire’s ever-engrossing (and lo...

For me, one of the best movie trends from the ‘80s and ‘90s was the rash of “buddy-cop” films. (Think your “Beverly Hills Cops”, “Lethal Weapons”, and“Die Hards”.) What made those movies, in particular, so much fun—and better than others in the same genre—is that they knew what they were about, then executed it. The macho butting-of-heads early on between partners who had somehow gotten stuck working together? Yep. Exciting action (fights and chases) scenes? Check. Interesting stories (that weren’t so complicated you needed to take notes to keep track)? Roger that. Humorous banter aplenty? Absolutely. And finally, a sense that these two characters actually grew to kind of like (or at least, tolerate) each other--became buds--by the time the credits rolled? Definitely. When I sat down to watch “Bright” (a Netflix Original movie) last month, it wasn’t with high hopes. The trailer looked lame, frankly—a muddled mess that didn’t seem to know what it was trying to be. Plus, ...

A fascinating and beautiful medieval city. A young American woman on temporary foreign assignment, coping with the unknowns of working in a strange land and with the hassle of trying to avoid her misogynistic new supervisor. A host of vampires, witches, ghosts, and assorted other fae creatures. What could be more entertaining?  Well, a lot of things, actually—although there are, fortunately, a few high points—in E.J. Stevens’ urban fantasy, Hunting in Bruges .  ________________________ Jenna Lehane is a young—check that, very young—member of the American order of a worldwide organization known as the Hunters’ Guild, whose mission it is to keep humans safe from all manner of dangers… especially those of the supernatural variety. It seems nefarious paranormal activity has recently picked up in the ancient city of Bruges, and the Guild there—woefully understaffed—has put out a call for assistance. Fresh off a job that had kinda gone sideways, Jenna’s boss kno...

Last year, when giving my two cents’ worth on Midnight Blue-Light Special (the second installment in Seanan McGuire’s urban fantasy “Incryptid” series, which you can catch up on/refresh your memory about, here ), I mentioned a few things of which I have no knowledge whatsoever. (And no, nothing has changed on those fronts, in case you’re wondering… including my utter lack of skill with an onion.) That brings me to another area in which I have no personal expertise: knowing what it’s like to be the eldest child (or the middle, youngest, or any other position in the familial pecking order, for that matter, being an only, myself).  Sure, I can sort of imagine what it must be like, growing up with siblings—splitting the attention, resources, space, blame, responsibility, etc.—but I’ll never actually know . Not so with Alex Price, star of the third “Incryptid” tale, Half-Off Ragnarok . The first-born child in a branch of the family hailing from a very long line of cryptozoolog...