Here’s the general setup of the series: We have Anita Blake, the short, assertive, overly-weaponed necromancer (zombie-raiser)/vampire hunter. More under the cut, actually, in case there’s a person left in the world who hasn’t read these books who wants to. Anyway, Anita’s up to something like five or six permanent boyfriends and another dozen rotating ones. The permanent ones include Jean-Claude, Master of the City of St. Louis (i.e., head vampire); Micah, the other head of the wereleopard pack; Nathaniel, another wereleopard; Asher, Jean-Claude’s second-in-command (another vampire); Damian, Anita’s pet vampire (a long story, found in another volume), and, maybe, Richard, the head of the werewolf pack. She now carries about five different strains of lycanthropy, even though she doesn’t shift shapes, and in addition to being the lupa (sort of) of the werewolf pack (and the Bolverk), she’s the queen of the leopards. She’s also arguably got some vampire powers, being that she has managed to ‘inherit’ Jean-Claude’s ardeur, the need to/ability to feed off of sex the way that most vampires feed off of blood. (i.e., she’s arguably a succubus, but not as cool as Georgina.) Because of that, she can make men become addicted to her. She still occasionally hunts things.

So in the current volume, Anita has decided to pretend to be Jason’s girlfriend while Jason goes to visit his dying father. (Jason is one of the rotating boyfriends; also generally just a friend of Anita’s since book 3.) Jason’s family is dead convinced that he’s gay, despite legions of ex-girlfriends, and apparently the presence of a girlfriend might ease the father’s passing. However, everything goes pear-shaped because Jason looks almost exactly like the governor’s son — who is getting married this weekend. Apparently the idea that said governor’s son (named Keith) could be spending time with a pretty brunette instead of his blond fiancee isn’t too far off of reality, and the media gets involved . . . and then Marmee Noir, the biggest, baddest, oldest vampire of ‘em all gets involved . . .

The disputed volume in the series is Micah, which came between volumes 12 and 13. At one point, Ms. Hamilton was going to write shorter novels, exploring the relationships between Anita and each of the individual males she’s shacking up with. I think the genesis of this plot was actually Jason’s volume, because, well, she does all she can to get Anita and Jason isolated — in North Carolina, even. (I’ve been there; it really is that pretty, but I don’t remember it being quite that messed up.) She may have changed the ending in order to get in stuff that’s relevant to the overarching plot of the series (such as it is), but basically, this is Jason and Anita and some talk therapy.

It’s sort of become the fashion to bash the Anita Blake books for having too much sex and too little plot, and while there wasn’t much plot in this volume, there really wasn’t much sex, either. Oh, enough, certainly, in terms of number of sex acts had over the course of the three or four days the book spans (I lost count), but most of them are barely described. Nothing like the 14-page epic sex scenes dating as far back as The Killing Dance (vol. 6). I like the mysteries, when they’re real mysteries, and Anita really didn’t have any investigating to do in this book. There was a moderate amount of danger, but if the book has almost no mystery plot and barely any sex, what’s left? Anita chatting with Jason about their respective screwed-up childhoods?

Another flaw of the last few volumes is Ms. Hamilton’s need to find greater and greater dangers. In the third volume (Circus of the Damned), we met and killed the world’s oldest vampire. Apparently she didn’t think about that one too hard, because now we’ve got the Mother of All Vampires, who may or may not be older than the previous guy, but is definitely scarier. This need to find something scarier and scarier in each book is causing her world-building to get more and more unwieldy, as she stretches certain points in order to put Anita in more and more danger. Of course, the more danger Anita gets into, the greater her powers have to be in order to handle that danger, and that’s why Anita apparently joined the Power of the Month club. (No, I didn’t originate that phrase. I can’t remember who did, though. Sorry.) In this book, she grabbed another animal to call and discovered that because of a combination of powers she already had, she’s even more powerful. I’d yawn, but it’s too tedious even for that.

Also, and this is a comparatively tiny nitpick, there’s a really, really simple explanation as to why Jason’s family thinks he’s gay, but she never used it. She did tell us that his sister swore she saw him having sex with another man, but he tells us he was somewhere else. So who did the sister see? Oh, well, the answer’s sort of there between the lines, but she never states it. It sort of felt like a loose end to me.

Why do I keep reading these books? Heck, until Blood Noir, I was BUYING them, in nice expensive hardbacks. Well, it’s because they’re addicting. Anita’s love life, and frankly even her professional life, is a trainwreck, but you can’t look away. Ms. Hamilton’s somewhat choppy writing style just sucks readers in, as if they haven’t left the world for over a year (as I did). The sex, when it’s present and Ms. Hamilton is writing in full form, is hot. It really is. It’s almost as euphemistic as romance novels and sometimes involves numbers and combinations and scenarios that might push the boundaries for some readers, but it’s still hot. Her characters are compulsively interesting, even if they’re all unnaturally beautiful and their flaws are of the sort that make you think they’re even more perfect. Anita has a thing for hurt/comfort sort of scenarios, and all the men in her flock seem to be broodingly gorgeous with deep pools of pain in their souls. They almost make me want to write bad emo-goth poetry, but fortunately I’m not fourteen, the way I was when I read the first of these. But they’re still hot.

Anyway, if you’re sort of insanely addicted, this might provide a decent hit until you can get a copy of the latest volume, which I’ve heard has a real plot and investigating and all that stuff, but it’s absolutely not worth it if you aren’t already hooked. I’m not sure the book even deserves a rating. The series overall started at 4/5 and has devolved to maybe in the 2.5 or 3-star range. I will say, though, that the first few volumes are pretty good, but I caution against reading them because it may make you compulsively want to read the rest of them, and then you’ll smack up against Micah, for which I’d like that hour of my life and $7 back, and Incubus Dreams, which may have had a plot but I’ve forgotten in between all the sex, and this one, which, as I’ve noted above, isn’t quite plotty enough to be decent and doesn’t have enough sex to be interesting in that way.

Elena Rostova — now Helen Roston — was a Russian orphan, but she joined the military and eventually was selected as the best candidate for a top-secret experiment, in making a supersoldier-spy. One of her primary qualifications was that she has psychic abilities. The supersoldier part included intense physical and mental training, and the spy part included virtual reality and clairvoyant training — which they call bilocation. Her mentor in this is a man she doesn’t meet; in the virtual-reality world where they see each other, she has designed his avatar. They are very attracted to each other, but will she ever find out his real-world identity? And will the experiment that is her life succeed?

This book is the first half of a duology, the second volume being Virtually Hers, and while it ends in a place that does bring a decent amount of closure, it’s obvious that it’s only half the story — even without the cliffhanger ending. This duology is also not the first in the overarching series, as there’s an impression of a lot of backstory — a romance between two secondary characters, for example, and little explanation as to what the different super-secret agencies do. However, I didn’t find it overwhelming — I found myself able to get into the story without needing to know exactly what the acronyms stood for, and the various personal relationships between Elena and other characters weren’t confusing at all. It did make me want to read the other books, though.

I have to admit, I had a bit of a problem with the alpha-ness of the hero. Obviously the heroine could match him, having been the perfect choice for the supersoldier-spy over a bunch of men, but he wanted to control too many aspects of her life. Helen already had everything in her physical reality controlled by the constraints of the experiment, but the hero (he is nameless for a large portion of the book) wanted to control her mind as well. It didn’t seem necessary, most of the time; it actually seemed like he wanted to control her for his own, personal, mostly sexual reasons. He admitted that he was very turned on by strong women, but he didn’t seem to want her to be a strong woman while they were together. There were a few scenes when he administered a drug to her that left her aware and able to speak but not in control of her body from the neck down, and that drug creeped the living hell out of me. However, those who are interested in the clash of two very strong wills and those with a taste for very, very alpha males will probably find that this book fits the bill.

Those reading for the science-fictional aspect will discover that a lot of her science is firmly based in reality; in addition, she has a number of skeptics among the minor characters. They point out that what the characters are discussing is, well, fantastic, and on the verge of unbelievable. On the other side, we have the nameless, faceless bad guys who are also using the same technology, but in ways that are significantly less ethical than the carefully-monitored experiments of the good guys. I thought that Ms. Low did a remarkable job of embedding so many points of view regarding the technology in her story; she also had different narrators who each had strong, unmistakeable voices. I liked Helen quite a bit, as well as those characters who were thrown in for humor breaks, and overall she did an admirable job of keeping the book read-in-one-sitting exciting. Romantic suspense fans who enjoy super-alpha males will be demanding more, and fortunately, Ms. Low has already provided. 4/5 stars.

This collection of short stories includes apparently 41 of his biggest and best tales, ranging from one of his first published works (“Deep Without Pity”) to three stories that had web debuts within the last couple years (“Straws,” “Golfing Vietnam,” “Fear Itself”). The tales range from a couple of punk westerns, a few pulp-type stories, straight-up science fiction, ultra-short literary fiction, a few that were intended for men’s magazines, and, of course, a few tales about rock ‘n’ roll. I won’t list all 41 titles, as that would take too much time, but interested readers can haunt the Sub Press website until they post the table of contents. This book will be published at the end of November this year.

Three of the stories are connected, as they are all about a Vietnam vet P.I. named Dan Sloane. Not many of the rest have characters that travel between stories, although there are many themes that resonate through his work. Mr. Shiner even comments in the author’s notes for a story called “Jeff Beck” that “[i]f there’s such a thing as a typical Shiner story, this is it: a magic wish that doesn’t work out; a troubled marriage; rock ‘n’ roll; and a big dose of working-class angst.” Quite often, elements from his own life story (there’s a giant autobiography on his website) show up in his stories. The story “Match” nearly happened; the main character in his novel Glimpses has a father who died the same way that Mr. Shiner’s father did. Many of his characters have unhappy marriages (he went through two), as well. One story — “Kidding Around” — is actually about someone else’s family, a writing student of his. (He obviously wrote the story with her permission.)

The last story in the book, “Lizard Men of Los Angeles,” Mr. Shiner describes (in his author’s notes on the story) as his favorite of all the stories he’s written. It’s a pulp-type story commissioned originally by Joe Lansdale, set in 1934 Los Angeles (obviously), and including Aleister Crowley, spontaneous human combustion, a stage magician and his beautiful assistant, a former child star turned ingenue, and, of course, lizard men. I loved the tone of the story; in fitting with the pulp sensibility, it was definitely tongue-in-cheek, and yet serious at the same time. I suspect that I need to read more pulp fiction, or at least the modern homages to pulp fiction. I’d really love to read more about Johnny Cairo and Mrs. Lockhart, although I doubt that any more is forthcoming.

Overall, this is an amazing collection; I would definitely recommend it for fans of his other works, and fans of short fiction such as John Crowley, Jai Claire, and even Charles de Lint, although his tone is not nearly as gentle. There’s something for nearly everyone, and while there are often violent and unpleasant events and even quite a few unlikable characters (or at least hypothetically unlikable ones), overall there’s enough to balance the novel. There’s even a children’s story, “Mark the Bunny,” which has some obvious socialist overtones, and although I wouldn’t recommend the collection as a whole for children, the story’s really hilarious for adults. 5/5 stars.

This is a sequel, and although I never read the first book, I’m cutting the plot discussion anyway. The Living Blood centers around two children, Fana and Jared, and their parents and families. Fana’s mother is Jessica Jacobs-Wolde, who is apparently infamous in Miami for having been married to David Wolde, the serial killer. He killed several people, but most notably their older daughter, Kira. Fana was conceived but not yet born at the time, and she is showing some strange abilities. Jared is the son of Dr. Lucas Shepherd, a microbiologist who has been studying alternative medicine for a number of years. Jared is dying of leukemia, and his father will do anything to find a cure. After Kira’s death, Jessica and her sister Alice moved to Africa, to start a clinic for children in the middle of a non-developed area. They apparently have some sort of miracle cure out there, and Lucas will do anything to get it.

Apparently this is a sequel to My Soul to Keep, but I didn’t know that prior to about a minute ago as the book didn’t indicate it in any way. I didn’t even have the feeling that there was an incredible amount of backstory, but apparently there was. Readers who read The Living Blood first will unfortunately have the entire plot of My Soul to Keep spoiled for them. I still wouldn’t mind reading it, as it might be interesting to watch the story unfold even though I know the ending. Also, of course, I very much enjoyed Ms. Due’s writing and characters, and it would be quite interesting to re-enter the world, if a bit backwards.

Jessica is an interesting character; she deals with her de facto immortality fairly well, but her daughter Fana unsettles her a bit. (And by ‘a bit,’ I mean ‘a lot.’) Fana was born laughing, which is strange enough as it is but a common element from folk tales. She’s three and a half years old for the majority of the book, and she has all sorts of strange abilities — she makes it rain; she can hear thoughts; she even puts someone into a coma with just the power of her mind. Frankly, any one of those things would make a normal mother incredibly freaked-out. The fact that Fana has a lot more power than even David or any of his fellow immortals clearly would make anyone nervous, and I thought that Jessica’s feelings were well-done and entirely natural.

Parts of this book deal with race in interesting ways. The majority of the characters are African-American. Yes, the bad guys are white in general but the worst of ‘em all isn’t. Some of the good guys are white, as well. Lucas’s wife was white, and he is light-skinned, so his son looks white. When he goes to Africa, he’s treated with a measure of suspicion by the locals, even after he explains that American society makes very little differentiation between light-skinned African-Americans (or Caribbean-Americans) and darker-skinned ones. Another character thinks something very uncharitable about a person who is half African, half Irish. Overall, though, the conflict isn’t really over race — it’s over the immortal blood.

That doesn’t mean that the racial element of the Africans and African-Americans having what the white people want should be ignored. I’m sure that Ms. Due intended to provoke thought surrounding this issue and how it’s topsy-turvy of, oh, say, the AIDS epidemic in Africa (the rich white countries being so benevolent as to provide life-saving medication to the poor savages in Africa, and I’m being extraordinarily sarcastic here). Overall, it was both an entertaining book and a book that made me consider certain elements in the world differently, and I’m looking forward to finding more books by Ms. Due. 4.5/5 stars.

Clipper is a thief, in that way where he normally picks pockets and steals purses, but in a moderately classy way — on the (London) Underground, and wearing a suit. His mentor used to be a man named Gary, but he recently disappeared. Anyway, one day he found the perfect woman for him — an American girl named Rachel, with whom he just clicked. However, the cops appear to be chasing him, so he runs away. Will he ever see her again? And will the cops catch him? Why are they after him in SWAT gear, anyway?

There are only four main characters in the story: Clipper, Rachel, Warren, and Kieran. Clipper is our hero who’s sort of an anti-hero; his real name is Matt, and he’s sort of chafing at the whole thief thing, especially without Gary and after having met Rachel. Rachel, on the other hand, is a former bank employee who was also chafing at her job — she felt she was being a thief — and is in the process of moving back home to live with her mother on her horse farm. Warren is the bad guy; we don’t see much from his point of view, but it’s obvious that he’s got some sort of advantages in strength and healing that are most likely technological.

Kieran is another anti-hero of sorts; he certainly isn’t a good guy, being that he apparently used to run houses of prostitution and drug rings. However, he’s sort of decided to get out of the whole racket, and he attempts to get free, with interesting results. He barely appears in the current events, but his backstory is incredibly important to the story as a whole. The limits in the character cast are also echoed in the limited space in which the book takes place; the majority of it, not counting flashbacks, is in the last car of a subway. We first meet Clipper and Rachel outside the subway station, but we’re down in the confines of a car before too long.

At only a little over 100 pages, it might be more of a novella, but in any case, it’s a free Creative Commons download. I believe it’s generally considered a suspense novel, but it has spec-fic elements (weird technology) and I guess his other works are called “occult thrillers.” I haven’t read many of these kinds of books before, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy this foray into a different realm. While the author pretty much always tells us things rather than showing them, that seems to have been an absolute stylistic choice. His writing was tight, and he managed to keep the suspense up until the very end, tying things together in a relatively neat bow. (Okay, the action was pretty messy, but the plot was neat.) I’d recommend this, definitely; it’s free, it’s there, and it’s a fun way to spend an afternoon. 4/5 stars.