The Literate Kitty

Running around Manhattan in a dingy pair of track shoes is hardly an activity likely to raise many eyebrows. Neither is dashing about clad in designer-heel knockoffs or sporting a skimpy cocktail waitress get-up, for that matter.  But, conducting a considerable amount of all that hustling back and forth at sky level, from one rooftop to another, or mucking about in the subterranean levels, below the deepest subway tunnels? That definitely qualifies as unusual. And, doing it loaded down with an assortment of guns, throwing knives, and other concealable weaponry, in pursuit of creatures straight out of “ The Night Stalker ”? Yeah, that’s just plain odd, even by New York standards. It’s all just another day’s work for intrepid Verity Price, though, in Discount Armageddon, the first book from Seanan McGuire’s brand-new (and delightfully off-kilter) urban fantasy series, known as the “InCryptid Novels”. [Curious about her other works? Check out some of my reviews,  here ...

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...

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...

If Seanan McGuire’s first October Daye novel (Rosemary and Rue) was her spin on a moody, atmospheric, noir-style mystery (set in an uber-cool world populated by the Fae, Changelings, and regular humans), then her follow-up novel, A Local Habitation , goes the modern, high-tech crime thriller route (albeit with the same Fae and human mishmash of characters).  And once again, she’s managed to create something quite magical. The differences between the two stories--and the two approaches--are striking. It fell to R&R, the first of the series, to set up the whole world--introducing us to the characters, their environment, some background, and all the lore.  We first glimpsed lands of unimaginable beauty and thrilling magic, as we viewed various kingdoms and duchies of the Summerlands through Toby’s eyes. We learned how the Fae interact not only with each other, but also with the Changelings (whom they see as sort of second-class citizens) and the humans (whom they suffer as we...

The world is full of things we know about... and things about which we know jack. For instance, I know a lot about cats, a respectable amount about fitness, and next-to-nothing about, oh, wild boars. Or jai alai. (Or how to chop an onion into neat little pieces rather than hideously mangling it, but that’s another story.)  For the most part, it’s okay not understanding everything ; I’m fine with my ignorance of meaner-than-snot hogs and weird handball offshoots (although I do secretly envy those who’ve mastered slicing-and-dicing).   Now, let’s take monsters. They’re everywhere (remember the bogeyman who slithered from your closet to under your bed in the dark every night? or the Tooth Fairy, who only left you money when you placed your sacrifice-- a bloody tooth --under your pillow?), but given that most people allow themselves to forget about all the things that go bump in the night once they’re adults, our knowledge of monsters is sadly lacking.  That’s...