Day: March 18, 2011

“God damned creatures of the night! They never learn!”
Patricia Briggs‘s Moon Called had been sitting in my iBook Queue for a while so I decided to take a break from the sci-fi I had been reading and enjoyed some urban fantasy.
Moon Called is the first novel in the Mercy Thompson series that follows around our native american heroine while she fixes cars, gets into trouble with werewolves, vampires and russian witches. For urban fantasy it’s fairly lightweight and that’s what makes this novel a fun read since it does not over extend it’s reach. Mercy’s abilities to shift into a coyote is set up quickly enough and used sparingly not to become crutch. Her world shares several themes from Charlaine Harris’s books: The Fae have come out to humanity since forensic science, the internet and such have progressed enough to find them while the Vampires and Werewolves have stayed in the closet. Werewolves take the center stage since Mercy lives behind Adam, the Alpha Male of the Washington State Pack of Werewolves and the tension between Mercy, Adam and her werewolf teenage crush is great since Mercy is not part of pack and the Werewolves fight over her.
The over aching plot keeps itself neat and clean to an extent: Someone kills Mercy’s new garage helper, kidnaps Adam’s daughter and attempts to send the Vampires and Werewolves at war with each other. The book is not without it’s downside: Towards the end before the big finale, the plot does get a little too muddled since it involves too many people to remember and a Clan Name Guide is needed but the plot threads are tied up nicely in the end and the characters are interesting enough to warrant picking up the next book.
Overall, if you enjoy Kat Richardson’s and Seanan Mcguire’s takes on urban fantasy I’d recommend the Mercy Thompson series.