Hotter After Midnight
Cynthia Eden
Kensington Brava, May 2008, $14.00
ISBN: 9780758226020

Therapist to the paranormal Emily Drake’s client list includes vampires with a psychotic reaction to blood and legendary Others with phobias. Because of her abnormal caseload, Dr. Drake has been asked to provide profiling skills to the police investigating the Night Butcher murder. She will work with Detective Colin Gyth, who makes her lust for him, but the psychiatrist to the Monster species knows never trust a shifter with your heart, soul or body.

Soon more creatures are killed even and they begin to meet powerful demons, out of control shifters, and an apparent human with special powers. As they get closer to solving the serial killing case, alpha Colin lets the beast out that he has controlled as much as possible to keep his soulmate safe from the Night Butcher who looks forward to tasting Emily’s terror. However, in spite of her impudent rejections that she does not want anything to do with his only natural shape shifting organ, his desire for her has taken charge of him.

This dark yet amusing police procedural romantic fantasy is fast-paced and filled with non stop action. However it is the cast that makes this a superb thriller as nasty demons, disreputable shapeshifters, and other paranormal species prove anything is possible under the sun, and a fabulous abnormal psychiatrist who keeps the whodunit and romance focused. HOTTER AFTER MIDNIGHT is fantastic heat anytime of the day.

Harriet Klausner

A Dog Among Diplomats
J. F. Englert
Dell, May 2008, $6.99
ISBN: 9780440243649

Randolph the Labrador is considering a post dinner nap once the Chinese spareribs settles in his abundant stomach as staying awake proves difficult because his master Harry is dozing while some narcoleptic butchers the narration of the life of van Gogh. However, NYPD Detective Peter Davis calls bringing both Harry and Randolph out of their TV induced comas when he mentions “her”. Peter is the lead detective on the disappearance of Imogen, who rescued Randolph from the pet ship morons and introduced him to her beloved Harry.

Harry and Randolph quickly rush from their Upper West Side apartment to the East Village. Trusting but naive artist Harry and doubter Randolph are informed that their mutual significant other is tied to a homicide that is linked to the U.N. Randolph somewhat because he reads the Post and knows cops are either heroic, on the take, or idiots. Whereas Harry turns to a medium for guidance from the spirit realm, Randolph figures his buddy is acting too human. He goes undercover as a “therapy” dog to anxiety ridden U.N. diplomat Leopold Maranovsky of Near Upper Pilasia, a nation that is currently not annexed by its neighbors though Randolph knows that region keeps mapmakers employed. The canine must keep Harry safe as someone has to humiliatingly escort him when he does 1 and 2 and pick up the poop after him, and prove Imogen is innocent (hopefully alive too) by identifying the real killer; now he has a chance as he has broken through the sanctimonious U.N. dog run barrier.

Randolph continues to be A DOG ABOUT TOWN as he investigates the East Village homicide by infiltrating the U.N. Once again Harry assumes some spirit is guiding his canine as Randolph follows the clues. Readers who appreciate a different type of whodunit will want to read the tale of a genius dog living in a human world especially inside the U.N. where prejudicial diplomats from Near Upper Pilasia and Near Lower Pilasia interact with scorn.

Harriet Klausner

Shadow Gate
Kate Elliott
Tor, Apr 2008, $25.95
ISBN: 9780765310569

The eagle riding Marit the reeve died three years ago (see SPIRIT GATE) while working alongside her lover reeve marshal Joss as they and others tried to save the mortals of the Hundred from an attack led by a rogue Guardian. Now Marit awakens lying naked on a Guardian alter. She is bewildered to be alive as she remembers being murdered and knows her soulmate eagle is dead.

Marit begins to understand what has happened to her while wondering if Joss lives and if the war is over who won. As she concludes she somehow has become one of the Nine Guardians, she vows to be different than they were. She will directly help the Hundred instead of taking an apathetic position as the Guardians she served seemed to have taken until one of them turned rogue. Marit learns that the hostilities remain with the people struggling to survive against the horde led by hostile Guardians.

SHADOW GATE, the second Crossroads epic fantasy, is a tremendous thriller that grips readers from the moment Marit wakes up on the altar and never slows down in spite of numerous complex subplots that highlight a world turned from justice and order to injustice and chaos. Although the climax occurs suddenly and leaves major threads for book three, fans will appreciate the deep look at a world in trouble, but recommend perusing the previous tale first (see SPIRIT GATE) to fully comprehend the complexities of the Elliot cosmos.

Harriet Klausner

The Wrath of Zar
Shayne Easson
WestBank, Nov 2007, $24.95
ISBN: 9780978984014

Although they are brothers, Adan Caynne would choose flight while Dex would choose fight. Thus they are opposites with Dex wanting to become a warrior and Adan turning the other cheek because he has some inkling of his father’s former life as a Ches warrior who barely survived a demonic led assault.

Keeping his head buried in the sand, Adam is ignorant that a demon army is destroying Yannina. However, he becomes aware that something is wrong when his sibling vanishes and a neighbor Cadin brutally killed. Vowing to find and rescue his brother from whatever, Adan wonders if his father’s newly arrived fully armed visitors he never met before are involved with the recent events. However, his quest turns surreal when the Andar apprentice Hythe informs him he is the only hope to defeat the Demon Vayle and his horde destroying the guardian who imprisoned him. Soon others including Zar the dragon ally with him even as he insists he is not fighting demons or anyone for that matter.

This action-packed quest fantasy stars a wonderful reluctant hero, who has enough personal issues trying to remain stalwart on his personal hunt only to have an assortment of entities claim he’s the man. Readers will feel they are trekking alongside Adan and his band as they search for his twin while preparing for the larger mission of battling the invincible demon army led by a champion who chooses flight not fight. Shayne Easson provides readers with an outstanding opening adventure in his Demons of Destiny saga.

Harriet Klausner

Got to Kill Them All
Dennis Etchison
Cemetery Dance $40.00
ISBN 9781587670930

These eighteen tales have appeared in other publications, but never together. The entries represent the four decades with the earliest being 1966 (“Sitting in the Corner, Whimpering Quietly”) of award winning writer Dennis Etchison. The entries have in common seemingly normal environs that turn suddenly into a personalized frightening encounter for an individual whether the short takes place at a Laundromat, a butcher shop, or a bar. With six tales published in the 1970s; five in the eighties and nineties; and six in the current decade; readers obtain an evolutionary glimpse of an author who in the short format paints a disturbing landscape using one everyday locale in which one event changes the milieu sort of like the recent killings at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs. Not for the cozy crowd, as Dennis Etchison’s dark but entertaining world makes the title apropos in which even the innocent aggress that in this superb anthology GOT TO KILL THEM ALL is the norm.

Harriet Klausner

Reaper’s Gale
Steven Erikson
Tor, Feb 2008, $27.95
ISBN 9780765310071

The brutal Tiste Edur tribe of the north rules the Letherii Empire that they only recently conquered, but their control is weak and shaky as most people oppose them and Chancellor Gnol still runs the government. The Emperor of a Thousand Deaths Rhulad Senger symbolizes all that is wrong with the monarchy as everyone believes he is insane even his own people yet he sits on the throne. As the Edur purists fear Letherii economic assimilation, opposition from within grows as each time Rhulad dies, he returns to life less lucid and coherent.

That inside threat is still jelling but the external assaults are greater to the stability of the tottering empire. Redmask leads the belligerent Awl’dan tribes of the east against the Letherii and the powerful rival Malazan Empire sees an opportunity has sent its armada to take the capital by sea. Others also seek to usurp the Edur.

REAPER’S GALE, tale seven of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, is an extremely complex fantasy and fans of the series will marvel at the epic scope; newcomers need to start at the beginning (see GARDENS OF THE MOON). The myriad of subplots are much more convoluted and complicated than the simplicity described above, but for the most part the often vividly brutal events tie to the beleaguered Edur and its rule over the Letherii Empire. The threads left dangling forebode quite a future in this saga as Steven Erickson provides his strongest entry in a deep series in quite awhile.

Harriet Klausner

My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon
P.N. Elrod (editor)
St. Martin’s, Jan 2008, $13.95
ISBN: 9780312375041

This follow up to the “I dos” of MY BIG FAT SUPERNATURAL WEDDING contains nine engaging paranormal honeymoons from well known fantasists. All are lighthearted entertainment as the couples (representing a wide scope of non human characters) find supernatural intrusion interfering in their respective honeymoon. Readers will note that Dresden in “Heorot” by Jim Butcher (aside: not on his honeymoon) and P.N. Elrod’s Fleming in “Her Mother’s Daughter” appear; however, fans of the series of these two stars will find the format limiting compared to the novels. Still with works from Kelley Armstrong (the most romantic entry), Rachel Caine, Katie MacAlister, Marjorie M. Liu, Ronda Thompson, Caitlin Kittredge, and Lilith Saintcrow as well as Mr. Butcher and Ms. Elrod, romantic fantasy fans will enjoy this fun anthology even with no otherworldly shattering entry.

Harriet Klausner

Stewards of the Flame
Sylvia Engdahl
BookSurge, 2007, $19.99
ISBN 9781419675065

On the colonial planet Undine, Captain Jesse Sanders Unified Colonial Fleet star freighter Eureka awakens in a medical facility in which two technicians ignore his denial as they claim he is an alcoholic. He insists otherwise as he never drank onboard or excessively with the crew on-world; he occasionally got drunk when he was off duty and alone.

He learns he has been sedated for three nights as his doctor says he cannot leave until he is detoxed. If he fails to depart on time with his vessel he will be classified as AWOL and stuck on this backwater orb for life. Worse as he complains they label him hostile and in need of Aversion Therapy. That means special treatment without his consent needed to include visits to Psych. His Starship Fleet career is dead as the health system imprisonment gets worse until he meets a group who believes in the illegal right to die. These STEWARDS OF THE FLAME enables him to escape to an island hideaway where he learns to use much more of his mind’s powers to ignore pain and to telepathically communicate.

The premise behind this novel is that Big Brother monitors an individual’s mental and physical health in order to “take care’ of the person in accordance with laws even if a competent person rejects such treatment. That hypothesis is grounded in current efforts to make the medical field more efficient and effective; it is not a stretch to expand the electronically documented military health records of soldiers or the President’s push for electronic transferable medical records to become the basis of required treatments. When the STEWARDS OF THE FLAME moves into more esoteric new age elements the story line remains extremely entertaining mostly because of the hero, but loses some of its social commentary. Still Sylvia Engdahl provides her readers with a cautionary tale that Big Brother is coming through the government medical complex.

Harriet Klausner

Hot Mama
Jennifer Estep
Berkley, Nov 2007, $14.00
ISBN: 9780425218662

In Bigtime, New York, fashion designer Fiona Fine lives a precarious double life as superhero Fiera fighting crime especially the Fearless Five. She would not give up either her day job or her alterego work although unable to grieve in public her recent loss makes being a superhero not quite as glamorous as it may seem. Fiera struggles to hide her despondency over the death of her fiancé superhero Travis.

After a period mourning, Fiona knows she must move on so plans to begin dating again. As she works up the courage, she is attracted to newcomer wealthy playboy Johnny Bulluci. Meanwhile superhero work never stops as two new nasty supervillains have caused Bigtime trouble and the latest reincarnation of Johnny Angel seeks vengeance from those who murdered his previous body. With all the men in her life, Fiona does not have to look hard to find a date though some of them play dangerously.

The latest satirical superhero romantic fantasy is a fun tale starring Fiona-Fiera, a young woman with a temper that burns. The story line is told by her so that readers see her vulnerability, confusion, and courage as a caring person with responsibilities. HOT MAMA is an enjoyable lighthearted thriller.

Harriet Klausner

The Bonehunters
Steven Erikson
Tor, Sep 2007, $27.95
ISBN: 9780765310064

The defeat was so devastating especially with the rebel leader Sha’il dead; the revolt is all but lost. The last remnant of the rebel army has fled inside the eerie city of Y’Ghatan where the Malazan army hesitates because this is the haunted place where many of their ancestors died. That is why fanatical rebel leader Leoman chose to take a last stand here as he knows this spot will embolden his followers and hopefully rattles his untested in the blood of war opponent Malazan commander Adjunct Tavore into making a mistake. Leoman understands death is everywhere here and that soon more will follow.

Another war seems imminent as the pantheon of Gods is divided over allowing The Crippled God sanctuary with them. As each deity chooses a side in what has become an ugly debate, blood will soon flow. Although the agreements between the gods have been broken, one tentatively remains to keep the battles out of heaven and instead let the hostilities occur on mortal grounds because humans are expendable. Captain Ganoes Paran, the “master of the deck”, rejects that notion while Karsa Olong relishes the war of the gods where his violence is an asset unless you happen to be the “children” as he calls humans.

This strong entry continues the terrific Malazan Book of the Fallen epic fantasy with several major subplots beyond those described above occur that move the tale forward. Fans of Steve Erikson’s superb saga will appreciate this strong tale with battle scenes so detailed the audience will feel they are part of the siege (on both sides). It is the depth that makes book six one of the best in a super series. One warning for newcomers is obvious read the previous tales first to truly savor all that is happening in THE BONEHUNTERS (see MIDNIGHT TIDES).

Harriet Klausner