Switchblade Goddess Book Review

Title: Switchblade Goddess

Author: Lucy A. Snyder

Publisher: Del Rey

Pages: 323

ISBN: 9780345512116

I have to be honest here: I've been waiting to read this book since the moment I shut the cover of Shotgun Sorceress. It didn't help that at Mo*Con last year, Lucy was awesome enough to read from Switchblade Goddess, so needless to say, it's been a painful year of waiting. But now, alas, the waiting is over.

I wasn't sure how to take the release of Switchblade Goddess. On one hand, I was excited to see what happened next, especially after the succulent morsel Mrs. Snyder read at Mo*Con, but on the other, I was reluctant to open to the first page. Because, no matter what, once I started reading there would be no turning back, and ultimately, when the book ended, so would the incredible story that Mrs. Snyder has managed to weave.

After much contemplating, I finally dug in. It was three hours before I finally decided to acknowledge the outside world, or for that matter, air to breath. The next night, I finished the book, much to my chagrin. It was everything I expected, and so much more. Let's just say there were a lot of tears and fist pumps along the way.

If Spellbent was dark, and Shotgun Sorceress was darker, then Switchblade Goddess is a nosedive straight into hell! Switchblade Goddess picks up right after Shotgun Sorceress, except now things have gone from worse to unfathomable. Jessie has to deal with Miko in her hellement, while the Warlock and Cooper (Jessie's lover) deal with one of Cooper's younger brothers. As the story dives closer and closer to hell, things begin to unravel and get worse for Jessie, including an exorcism-like ceremony, and the poisoning of one of the most enjoyable characters Snyder has created within Jessie's universe.

The main theme of Switchblade Goddess featured heavily on possession; fighting inhibitions and personal demons, and outside invaders to body and soul. Whether Snyder intentionally set out to do this or not, it worked remarkably well as a tool for tying up the majority of the loose ends that have popped up since Jessie's introduction in Spellbent. This has become a pet-peeve with me within recent years; not every author can manage to so elequantly tie up loose ends like Lucy can.

Snyder finds a way to successfully immerse the reader back into the world of Jesse Shimmer, picking up the trails and hell that she's gone through before, and the desperation of the situation that she finds herself in with Switchblade Goddess. With hardly any new major characters to introduce, Switchblade Goddess mainly sticks to resolving the older, and new stray storylines that pop up along the way to the series climactic ending.

As for the story as a whole, at times I cried, but for the most part I couldn't help but jump up and down in hysteria, waking everyone in the house with my squees of glee. If you've read this far in Jesse Shimmer's adventures, then you know what you're in for: a tight story, characters you love to hate, a special kind of magic that leaves you wanting more, and all the sexual tension you can handle without having to excuse yourself for some alone time. None of that lacks in Switchblade Goddess. In fact it's more prevalent than in any of the past tiltes. That's why I'm giving Switchblade Goddess 8.5 out of 10 TARDISes.

~Rodney

Winterborn Book Review

Title: Winterborn
Author: A.D. Roland
Publisher: Damnation Books
E-Book ISBN: 9781615724055
ISBN: 9781615724062


Tamsyn Hallert is in a desperate fight to keep her life in control. She’s coping with an unfaithful husband, Sean, who’s obsessed with the memory of Sharla, a woman with whom he carried on long-term extra-marital affair. Sharla apparently killed herself in a bizarre cult ritual suicide on the infamous and haunted Wraithborne Estate located only a short drive from the Hallert home. And to make matters worse, Sean still cranes his neck at the living girls, too.

Add to that, Kevin, Sean and Sharla’s son, is an unwelcome new addition to their troubled family. Hidden from Sean until just before Sharla’s death, Kevin has made it his personal mission to make life for his new step-mom hell on Earth. Is it any wonder that Tam’s use of tranquilizers has grown into an addiction that now threatens to overwhelm her?

But Tam believes in her family, and she stands by her man and waits patiently for him to put his obsession with his dead lover behind him. She does her best to mother the evil ungrateful stepchild. But while Tam is supporting everyone around her, no one is supporting her, and her life spins rapidly out of control. Before long, the shadows are dissolving into scratching, cackling creatures chasing her through the house, the stepchild is openly threatening her (and demonstrating bizarre superhuman powers in the process), and it’s not long before the ghost of Sharla herself shows up to torment her. But are these really supernatural occurrences or hallucinations brought on by an ongoing psycho-tropic drug overdose? Can Tam save her marriage, her home, and herself?

Winterborn is a hefty novel, at 130,000 words, adding half again to the normal length of the typical action thriller. With this expanded lentgh, A.D. Roland expands upon her story, exploring the nuances of the cult that took Sharla’s life, the motivation of the nasty stepchild and the forces at work against him. Roland introduces a variety of nasty creatures, several secondary characters, each with their own dangling plotlines. Husband Sean spends time on the Wraithborne Estate grounds to explore the bizarre happenings there.

A.D. Roland demonstrates considerable ambition in Winterborn, and at times she falls a bit short of those ambitions, as if some aspects of the story grew too big for her. Plot points pop up for a time and are then dropped. At one point, the television transmits what amounts to a “supernatural documentary” to provide some backstory. Intriguing in the moment, the TV never repeats this magic trick.  Winterborn takes on issues no less challenging than spiritual strength in modern times, but doesn’t seem to reach any conclusions. (Then again, maybe that’s the point after all.)

Still, taken as a whole, A.D. Roland can be forgiven the occasional stumble when the overall effect is this much fun.  For its intimidating length, Roland conjures up a tightly written, fast paced supernatural thriller seamlessly woven around one woman’s struggle with addiction and a cheating husband. Winterborn reads fast and stays with you long after. I wholeheartedly recommend this ambitious supernatural thriller—especially to anyone who needs a break from their steady diet of zombies and vampires. 8 out of 10 TARDISes.

~RJ

Spellbent Book Review

Title: Spellbent
Author: Lucy A. Snyder
Publisher: Random House
Pages: 368
ISBN: 9780345512093

Spellbent is the ambitious, brilliant and funny debut novel of author Lucy A. Snyder.

Back in February I had the opportunity to meet Lucy, and her husband and fellow author Gary A. Braunbeck at a local signing in Indianapolis. I had previously only met them once before, back in '07 at Mo*Con II, and thoroughly enjoyed talking to them both and picking their brains on writing and the like. So, needless to say when I found out they were coming back to Indy again I knew I couldn't pass it up. And man, am I glad that I didn't. A fun night was had by all: Mr. Braunbeck read from one of his short stories, while Mrs. Snyder read an excerpt from Spellbent, and I walked away with more books that what I had walked into the store with, including a signed copy of Spellbent. Always nice.

I took it home and devoured it in about three sittings. It kept me spellbound from the very start, and continued to pull me in every time I tried to put it down. Snyder has a way of blending genres -- as most urban fantasy is all about -- and making the reader want more, and Spellbent has everything in it, including: Romance, Fantasy, Adventure, Horror and Mystery, with a good splash of humor thrown in. It reminded me a lot of Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files, in many ways, including the blending of genres and the epic scope that this seris could pan out to be, exceept Snyder doesn't take three books to get to the meat of the story.

Jessie Shimmer is a witch-in-training; an apprentice to her boyfriend Cooper, who's damn good at what he does. But while the two are casting a simple rain spell to help out the local farmers, things go haywire and Cooper disappears, leaving Jessie left with only her new ferret familiar, Pal. With no money, limited magic and a target on her back, Jessie takes it upon herself to find out what happened to her boyfriend and to set things straight, leaving destruction and death in her wake; she'll stop at nothing to find out what really happened to Cooper, and all I can say is: I WANT MORE!

Spellbent was one hell of a ride, something that caught me off guard. I didn't initially think it would be so fast paced and addictive, but Mrs. Snyder unlike many new authors, knows what she's doing, and I'm excited to see what she does with the second book in the trilogy, -- previously titled The Devil in Miss Shimmer -- Shotgun Sorceress. There are a handful or so of characters that are only met in passing, or for that matter mentioned, that I think would make badass characters, that I hope to see return, but only this time play a bigger role.

Over all, this debut novel is a first time experience that is well worth the read if you get the chance to pick it up. That's why I'm giving Spellbent by Lucy A. Snyder 9 TARDIS's out of 10. It's definitely going to be on the top of my list for 2010!

And if you get the chance, keep cecking back: in the next month or so I'll be doing a podcast interview with not only Lucy, but also with her husband, Gary, and I have a feeling it's going to be a good one!

~Rodney