52
Greg Cox
Ace, July 2007, $15.00, 361 pp.
ISBN 044105077

The Crisis is over but there are casualties that leave the world vulnerable. Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman have disappeared. The latter two have suffered burnout and have to figure out who they really are while superman has lost his power temporally he hopes it will return but for now he cannot watch over the world in the way he loves. However there are still superheroes who have taken up the banner of keeping the world safe.

From the twenty-fifth century comes Booster Gold, a superhero with futuristic technology and a robotic sidekick Skeets. He is in it for the money from the sponsors but he is caught in a dishonest act and is discredited. A new superhero Supernova emerges who doesn’t fumble the ball like Booster did and is a hero in the Superman tradition. They play a role in dealing with the Intergang, a collective of criminals who have joined forces in the Mideast and want safe passage in Khandaq but the super family of Black Adam, Isis and Osiris refuses them. In retaliation plague and pesticide is released on the nation and the family has to fight the shapeshifting criminal monsters and battle until one person is left standing. Gotham has Catwoman to watch over it and the city will need her because Intergang plan to move its headquarters there.

52 is a novel based on the 52 issue DC mini series and it captures the spirit of those comic books even though plots and characters have been left out. This is a classic good versus evil series and the heroes are very heroic and the villains are the ultimate evil. Readers will thoroughly enjoy this change to the order as other heroes besides the original JLA members take the spotlight.

Harriet Klausner

Dragon Heat
Allyson James
Berkley, Jul 2007, $6.99
ISBN: 042521589X

Lisa Singleton knows wills can contain strange bequests and that some roommates can be difficult to live with. She knows both from recent practice. Her beloved grandmother recently died leaving her with a roommate; Caleb the fifty-foot dragon. Caleb does not like anyone entering his personal space, which is wider than the Grand Canyon; worse the beast also detests anyone stepping inside of Lisa’s.

Caleb is a guardian warrior sent to keep Lisa safe from evil witches, led by Donna, who attack the naive who do not know they have magical skills. Caleb goes human to protect Lisa from Donna and her black dragon although he struggles to stay focused as he fell in love with his charge when he was a fifty foot golden dragon.

The key to this delightful romantic fantasy is the audience will believe that grandma’s San Francisco apartment has an access to Dragonspace as Allyson James makes the dragons, witches and their environs so real. The story line is action-packed as Caleb turns from pet dragon to pet human in love. Lisa is delightful as she changes from non-believer to healthy skeptic to tyro-practitioner in an attempt to stay alive while also falling in love with her protector. Although readers will wonder where to buy a litter box to accommodate a fifty foot dragon, this is a fun tale of life between a mortal and her dragon.

Harriet Klausner

Dragon Heat
Allyson James
Berkley, Jul 2007, $6.99
ISBN: 042521589X

Lisa Singleton knows wills can contain strange bequests and that some roommates can be difficult to live with. She knows both from recent practice. Her beloved grandmother recently died leaving her with a roommate; Caleb the fifty-foot dragon. Caleb does not like anyone entering his personal space, which is wider than the Grand Canyon; worse the beast also detests anyone stepping inside of Lisa’s.

Caleb is a guardian warrior sent to keep Lisa safe from evil witches, led by Donna, who attack the naive who do not know they have magical skills. Caleb goes human to protect Lisa from Donna and her black dragon although he struggles to stay focused as he fell in love with his charge when he was a fifty foot golden dragon.

The key to this delightful romantic fantasy is the audience will believe that grandma’s San Francisco apartment has an access to Dragonspace as Allyson James makes the dragons, witches and their environs so real. The story line is action-packed as Caleb turns from pet dragon to pet human in love. Lisa is delightful as she changes from non-believer to healthy skeptic to tyro-practitioner in an attempt to stay alive while also falling in love with her protector. Although readers will wonder where to buy a litter box to accommodate a fifty foot dragon, this is a fun tale of life between a mortal and her dragon.

Harriet Klausner

Demons Are Forever
Julie Kenner
Berkley, Jul 2007, $14.00
ISBN: 0425215385

In her last battle with demons, soccer mom Kate Connor saved the life of her teenage daughter Allie. Now she must explain to her beloved offspring her vocation as a demon hunter and the truth about her child’s father, her late spouse Eric who died in combat against the evil demons. As difficult as that proves, she fears that Eric’s soul has been trapped inside the body of David Long, which implies use of taboo darkest magic.

However, Kate has no respite to assist her daughter’s adjustment and to analyze whether Long’s theory is correct. Hordes of demons keep appearing demanding she had over the “stone”. Having no idea what these malevolent beings are talking about, Kate ponders what was Eric doing before he was murdered as he seems to be the link in her current fiasco.

The latest Confessions of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom (see California Demon CARPE DEMON is a fabulous tale of Buffy being an adult suburban single mom battling demons while trying to raise her family in California. The story line is told by the heroine, but her toughest battle ever is explaining what the hell is going on to Allie especially after the teen’s entry into the demon war. Adding to Kate’s woes is that every demon in the vicinity believes she has something that belongs to them and her fear and joy that Eric’s soul is nearby. This is a great entry as mother and daughter discuss the legacy of soccer moms kicking demons to the death.

Harriet Klausner

Safe Harbor
Christine Feehan
Jove, Jul 2007, $7.99
ISBN: 0515143189

Mendocino County Sheriff Jonas Harrington takes a bullet when he finds himself in the middle of a Russian Mafia hit. His childhood archenemy supermodel Hannah Drake uses her paranormal skill to control the wind by calling up its force to save his life.

However soon after rescuing the sheriff, Hannah is brutally attacked and left to die. Ilya Parkenskii keeps her barely alive waiting for the Drake sisters, powerful witches to arrive to save their sibling’s life. Meanwhile a stunned Jonas stops running from his attraction to Hannah, vowing to not only keep her safe if her siblings miraculously save her life; he swears he will hunt down her adversary, not understanding what he has vowed to defeat.

Readers who have followed the previous tales of the seven Drake sisters (see OCEANS OF FIRE AND THE TWILIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS) know that the lead couple has been bickering nonstop since they met as children and continue in this paranormal romance until danger stalks Hannah. The story line is action-packed and like the previous sibling thrillers over the top yet the support cast keeps the plot focused. Christine Feehan provides a bewitching Drake thriller starring the pair fans have waited for.

Harriet Klausner

Marked
P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast
St. Martin’s, May 2007, $8.95
ISBN: 0312360266

At a high school in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma the Tracker Vampyre MARKED sixteen years old Zoey Montgomery as a fledgling vampyre accepted at the House of Night, a prep school that trains the newcomers into becoming productive adults. The good is she no longer is failing geometry at SIHS; the bad is that some of the chosen fail to survive the Change. Leaving behind her close buddies, her boyfriend Heath and his beer binging, attending OSU, her step-loser dad, and using her grandfather’s name Zoey Redbird begins her new life.

As she adjusts to Vampyre School and makes new friends, the faculty knows Zoey is special. Nyx the Vampyre Goddess has given her and at least one other fledgling special powers.. However, with life and death still to come, Zoey with loyal new friends finds herself in direct opposition against the elitist Dark Daughters, whose leader abuses Nyx’s special endowment.

This is a terrific opening young adult fantasy that targets the high school crowd. The cast (pun intended) make the tale work as the audience will believe in vampyre high school because of the fully developed faculty and students. However, the entertaining coming of age story line belongs to the heroine, who just wants to fit in and not have to battle dangerous peers while fearing the Change as she keeps the fine plot focused.

Harriet Klausner

The Chosen of Azar
Carol Kluz
WestBank, Apr 2007, $14.95
ISBN: 0978984005

Azar the all powerful chooses a teen quintet to save Haven’s Hold from the fearsome fivesome of his evil brother Condragon. The all mighty knows his young warriors have quite a task ahead of them so he assigns wizard Mo Demz, the hero of the Third Age demon siege, to mentor and train the Chosen five so that when they face the ultimate malevolence in the Fifth Age with a world at stake they will be ready.

To teach them even an iota of what they will need Demz takes THE CHOSEN OF AZAR on a dangerous journey in search of talismans to use one day when the final battle occurs. Demz knows how difficult his task is, but realizes how much harder it will be on the Chosen, three boys and two girls who must grow up too fast as youthful exuberance and angry exasperation will vanish rather quickly or they will fail and die.

The above describes the opening sequences of an exciting epic coming of age fantasy. The story line is action-packed from the moment Demz and his followers recruit and trains the champions, and never slows down as they battle demons and churls; knowing defeat means death. Readers will enjoy the CHOSEN OF AZAR, a terrific first entry that introduces a strong cast preparing for the coming Fifth Age as chronicled in the Book of Empyrean.

Harriet Klausner

Wired
Liz Maverick
Dorchester Shomi, Jul 2007, $6.99
ISBN: 0505527243

L. Roxanne Zaborovsky is graduating college, but does not plan to attend the ceremony. Instead before her interview, she heads to the neighborhood 7-Eleven, thinking nothing could happen to her on such a short walk; although she repeats that mantra several times trying to keep the panic at bay as her lack of memory of key events and people frightens her.

Suddenly two men come out of nowhere with one shouting at the other she is mine and the second one saying au contraire. As Leonardo Kaysar and Mason Merrick argue with one another over Roxy, she is ready for flight not fight. Still she knows they want something from her but Roxy is confused as she is not sure what and because Mason seems familiar yet unfamiliar as if they shared an attraction and more. She learns she is a player and so are they in a game of life in which fate is a zillion wires that crisscross, but though she feels she once loved Mason and may still she believes he will do anything to win including harming her. However, this time Roxy understands more than the apparent myriad of previous times with these two competing punks; she plans to change the rules although she has no idea how or if successful what that will do to her and the two male hunks sniffing at her.

This is a terrific science fiction thriller that readers will be WIRED into one sitting as “reality” consistently shifts depending on who controls the threads of time and place. Fans will cheer on Roxy as she begins to comprehend the rules of the game in which there are none except whatever the rivals Leonardo and Mason separately decide as they manipulate everything and everyone with Roxy their current expendable game pawn. However, she plans to become lean and mean kicking butt. Liz Maverick provides a strong tale told by her heroine.

Harriet Klausner

The Dark River
John Twelve Hawks
Doubleday, July 2007, $24.95, 400 pp.
ISBN: 0385514298

Both Michael and Gabriel Corrigan are Travelers able to send their consciousness into other realms and when they returned from their journey, they had visions and information to change the world. Throughout time they were opposed by the Brethren who systemically hunted down in order to maintain the status quo. The Brethren are an uber-Big Brother who want to establish an invisible prison where all are spied upon, their every moment known. Various computerized information systems flow from the Vast Machine.

The Brethren are going to implement the next advanced monitoring program in Berlin and they know when it proves successful it will spread to all Germany and the rest of Europe. Michael has allied himself with the Brethren wanting the power they possess while Gabriel is on a collision cause with him because he his mission is to stop the Brethren from making the world an invisible prison with no freedom or human rights. Travelers always are by the ultimate fighting machine the Harlequin and Gabriel is guarded by Maya. Both brothers discover their father a powerful Traveler is alive and both get to find him. Gabriel become lost in one of the realms called Hell and Maya must risk everything in the hopes she can find and bring him home knowing she might be stranded in a word without hope or love.

Sometime in the future, computer technology will be so advanced that spying and monitoring everyone in the whole world will be commonplace. Those that persist against the technological imprisonment like, Gabriel, the Harlequins and the people that they persuade to go into battle with them are heroes as they are a very tiny minority willing to enter hell for their heavenly cause. Most people rather have their freedom curtailed to remain safe from terrorism. Michael isn’t the typical villain because he has some redeeming qualities and it wouldn’t surprise readers to feel he is more like us than his brother. This Orwellian tale is plausible and frightening built off of today’s anti terrorism practices in environs in which current technology has continued its rapid evolution.

Harriet Klausner

The Hanging Mountains
Sean Williams
PYR, Jun 2007, $25.00
ISBN 1591025443

Thousands of years after the Cataclysm eradicated civilization, Sky Warden Marmion reluctantly detours from his prime mission to uncover the source of the flood that apparently rose out of the Divide that splits the Earth. Instead frustratingly, he and his traveling compatriots are stuck in a forest trying to prevent war between the Milang human foresters and the Panic beasts.

Meanwhile the twins Hadrian and Seth continue to occupy the same body that of a Homunculus. They, tracker Habryn Kail and others flee the rising waters that inundate the land near the Divide hoping to find some safety in the legendary balloon cities of the Hanging Mountains. Sal and his companions on a ship of bones pursue them even as the siblings and Habryn begin to realize there is an unknown force at work trying to deliberately bring forth a second Cataclysm; evidence mounts that the original apocalyptic pandemic was caused by Homunculus so that Hadrian, Seth and Habryn wonder if they are the source again.

The third tale in the second saga is a well written entry that in one exciting (in of itself) subplot moves the overall chronicle glacially sideways (Marmion’s tale) while the other prime adventure (the twins’ tale) moves closer to the final confrontation though it also contains an entertaining unneeded “debate”. Still fans of the series will enjoy this volume (newcomers need to pursue at least the previous two novels if not the first series too) as Sean Williams sets in motion the final confrontation in the upcoming book four.

Harriet Klausner