Unshapely Things by Mark Del Franco

"Private investigator with supernatural abilities investigating supernatural crimes while dealing with human and supernatural policing forces" sounds like an odd thing to be becoming a cliché, but it seems to be becoming urban fantasy's version of the classic high fantasy Tolkein-esque party setup. (Of course, I far prefer it to the other main urban fantasy cliché these days: heroine with powers with every supernatural guy in the time zone lusting after her...)

Del Franco puts a slightly different spin on the setup, though, by making his hero a former hotshot guild investigator who lost his abilities not long ago and is struggling to get by because neither his former coworkers nor the human police care to work with him.  In this AU, the fey and the elves both lived in separate dimensions along with earth, and the three dimensions collided several decades ago, resulting in a number of representatives of both races taking up residence in the "normal reality.  The Guild is in charge of all criminal cases involving non-human perpetrators, and the main character, Connor Grey, is a druid who was a high ranking guild investigator until the backlash from a run in with a terrorist caused him to lose all but the most basic of his abilities.

I rather liked that, for once, the main character in one of these series is the guy with almost no powers dealing with people far more powerful than he is.  The human forces don't care for him because he had a superiority complex when he was an investigator (which came back to bite him in the butt a lot throughout the book) his old coworkers look at him as a failure and the only job he can get with his own kind is in the lowest ranks, working under the people he used to boss around.  I have a feeling, though, that he'll get his powers back in time (he did, extremely briefly, in this book) which will take away a lot of the appeal if there isn't a good, new twist in store.

Aside from a few glitches though (a few scenes where Del Franco seemed to be using the book to voice his own political and social opinions and where he tried to make his voice distinct but ended up sounding like every other urban fantasy out there) that, for a first book, were fairly minor, I quite enjoyed this one, though it did take a little while for it to get going for me.

As an aside, Meryl, the slightly-gothy orange haired quasi-friend of Connor's who rules the Guild basement and back talks anyone(no one is brave enough to tackle her filing system if they fire her or she quits, I think) was very fun.

Unshapely Things by Mark Del Franco

"Private investigator with supernatural abilities investigating supernatural crimes while dealing with human and supernatural policing forces" sounds like an odd thing to be becoming a cliché, but it seems to be becoming urban fantasy's version of the classic high fantasy Tolkein-esque party setup. (Of course, I far prefer it to the other main urban fantasy cliché these days: heroine with powers with every supernatural guy in the time zone lusting after her...)

Del Franco puts a slightly different spin on the setup, though, by making his hero a former hotshot guild investigator who lost his abilities not long ago and is struggling to get by because neither his former coworkers nor the human police care to work with him.  In this AU, the fey and the elves both lived in separate dimensions along with earth, and the three dimensions collided several decades ago, resulting in a number of representatives of both races taking up residence in the "normal reality.  The Guild is in charge of all criminal cases involving non-human perpetrators, and the main character, Connor Grey, is a druid who was a high ranking guild investigator until the backlash from a run in with a terrorist caused him to lose all but the most basic of his abilities.

I rather liked that, for once, the main character in one of these series is the guy with almost no powers dealing with people far more powerful than he is.  The human forces don't care for him because he had a superiority complex when he was an investigator (which came back to bite him in the butt a lot throughout the book) his old coworkers look at him as a failure and the only job he can get with his own kind is in the lowest ranks, working under the people he used to boss around.  I have a feeling, though, that he'll get his powers back in time (he did, extremely briefly, in this book) which will take away a lot of the appeal if there isn't a good, new twist in store.

Aside from a few glitches though (a few scenes where Del Franco seemed to be using the book to voice his own political and social opinions and where he tried to make his voice distinct but ended up sounding like every other urban fantasy out there) that, for a first book, were fairly minor, I quite enjoyed this one, though it did take a little while for it to get going for me.

As an aside, Meryl, the slightly-gothy orange haired quasi-friend of Connor's who rules the Guild basement and back talks anyone(no one is brave enough to tackle her filing system if they fire her or she quits, I think) was very fun.

Psych + Bones

We've been watching Psych this week at work.  It gets compared to Monk a lot so I've been curious about it and was glad one of the boys got it.  While it entertains me and I like it, and the characters, I'm not feeling and serious attachments yet, and while I like Shawn and his investigations and antics, I get annoyed at the scenes where he's faking having a vision, as they tend to be overdone and annoy me.  Still, I'll hopefully be borrowing the two discs we've watched already, so I can watch the eps properly.

Also, I loved the cover to season 2 of Bones when I first saw it the other day...thought it was really cute. But then I was looking at it again earlier, and HIS FEET!!!  Somehow that just makes the whole think look absurdly cute to me.

Though, for his sake, he better put his shoes back on if they go walking together after...I mean, just LOOK at those heals...

Psych + Bones

We've been watching Psych this week at work.  It gets compared to Monk a lot so I've been curious about it and was glad one of the boys got it.  While it entertains me and I like it, and the characters, I'm not feeling and serious attachments yet, and while I like Shawn and his investigations and antics, I get annoyed at the scenes where he's faking having a vision, as they tend to be overdone and annoy me.  Still, I'll hopefully be borrowing the two discs we've watched already, so I can watch the eps properly.

Also, I loved the cover to season 2 of Bones when I first saw it the other day...thought it was really cute. But then I was looking at it again earlier, and HIS FEET!!!  Somehow that just makes the whole think look absurdly cute to me.

Though, for his sake, he better put his shoes back on if they go walking together after...I mean, just LOOK at those heals...