Fangs for the Fantasy

Cullen Seaborn, the Nokolai werewolf and sorcerer has created a prototype that could change so much for the world – helping reduce the ongoing problem of the magical turn which is so destructive for technology. Albeit with a few side effects that still need ironing out

Those side effects make it all the more important to track it down when it is stolen. Made even more of a problem when the very existence of that prototype was supposed to be a carefully kept secret only known to Nokolai loyalists.

It becomes even more complicated when the thief gets in it – and it’s Rule’s unknown half-brother with additional problem of both Robert Friar’s evil manipulations and two different factions of sidhe.

I love Lily. I don’t think I’ve stressed this enough about how utterly awesome this character is. Because above everything else she is professional and she is sensible – and my gods that is so very rare in this genre

Lily is a cop and it permeates her character. I love to see that professionalism in everything –how she looks at every scene as a crime scene, how she sums up every person as a witness or suspect. Her logical, sensible way of summing up every situation she’s in with intelligence and logic. This is, more than anything, Lily’s super power. Not her abilities, not her immunity to magic, not any kind of fighting skill – but her intelligence and her professionalism. The way she approaches every mystery and investigation with keen intellect and steady progress is so excellent. Especially in this genre where most protagonists decide to “solve” crimes by hanging around until the bad guy tries to kill them (often with no apparent reason). Lily is a dedicated and capable investigator.

I also like the conflict of her development, especially how she needs rules to ensure she doesn’t step outside the law, I like the way she recognises what she is actually capable of rather than, again, so many protagonists who are happy to decide they are the ultimate authority and don’t need any pesky rules.

She’s also a woman of deep passion who cares desperately for those around her but makes decisions without emotion. All her decisions are rational. She cares about Beth, her sister and Rule, her fiancé but she doesn’t let caring for them make ridiculous decisions. She doesn’t have massive over-dramatic reactions to things like Rule not telling her everything or them having a disagreement. When Rule is going through difficult times Lily is so perfect, she’s there for him while giving

In fact that’s something else I love about this book – the relationships between the characters is so sensible without being emotionless. Beth, Lily’s little sister, is obviously a very different woman from Lily – but their relationship was meaningful and deep, their disagreements present but handled in a sensible manner without either side doing something ridiculous or turning against each other. I love the dramatic emotional moments of Beth, the complexities of her dealing with things like killing someone, even in self defence and what that does to someone.

Lily’s relationship with her friends and colleagues doesn’t feature as massively in this book but part of that is how awesomely those characters are presented – because Cyna, Ruben, Sam etc all have their own lives, their own issues and their own battles. They’re not all their for Rule and Cullen and Lily to call upon whenever they want – because every character is so very heavily involved in the meta plot of this world

Which, again, I say is amazing and I would head this review with that because it’s awesome – but Lily is definitely one of my top 10 favourite protagonists in the genre and has to take first billing

I love this world. I love the epic, I love the building of the ever more epic conflict. I love the development of the differing factions and societies: honestly, I would gladly read a textbook on sidhe culture in this world because the development is so excellent. Including differing factions – yes differing factions and complicated politics and beings that are not so much good or evil but just alien. This is what I really like is how we realise that the Sidhe just have radically values and culture to humanity – as they should. Even with their goal being for reasons completely beyond anything Cullen and Lily had imagined because the Sidhe goals and values are society is so different from anything they knew.

Which brings me back to relationships – because so often Lily can be in opposition to someone yet still have a lot of respect for them which we see here again. She can build a rapport even with her kidnapper because she respects them and can see their point and because they’re actually characters and not just demonised evil. This applies to the odd twist of Beth’s love interest as well.

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