Of Swords and Parasols

Madhouse is the third book in Rob Thurman's urban fantasy series about Cal and Nico Leandros, half brothers who have spent their lives on the run from the demonic race Cal's father belonged to, the Auphe.  After various trials  and tribulations, Cal and Niko thought they'd wiped the Auphe out for good, and settled down in NYC, opening a supernatural investigations service, having acquired several friends along the way.  Namely, Robin Goodfellow, a gleefully omnisexual puck, Promise, Niko's lawyer girlfriend who's also a vampire, and George, a young psychic Cal is in love with, but with whom he's taking the "push away for own good" thing to strangleworthy levels.

This time around, they learn that someone has stolen the bones of Sawney Beane, a cannibal( so leged says, in reality, a Redcap) who killed over a thousand people 500 years ago, and has resurrected him and set him loose on the city.  Even better, someone is siccing ancient Babylonian monsters on Robin, and Robin won't say why.  Ishiah, a member of a race many believe to be angels who runs the bar Cal works part time at, and who's an "old acquaintance" of Robin's also knows, but won't say unless Robin gives him the OK.

This book felt a lot darker than the first two, and went a few places I wasn't sure it'd go, especially in terms of gory descriptions, including a victim's-eye-view of Sawney literally taking a bite out of someone.  Granted, SOMETHING along those lines is expected when the plot revolves around the resurrection of a man-eater, but I never quite expected Thurman to go as far as she did.

This review says most of what I'd want to say better than I could, so just go read it. I think I love this series more with each book, but I do have two problems with this installmant.

(42) Raven’s Strike by Patricia Briggs -Sequel to Raven's Shadow, and a good one.  Also one of the few  books that actually has the cover depicted a scene straight out of the book.  I liked this duology quite a bit(click on the Patricia Briggs tag...comments about the first book also apply here) and wouldn't mind more books in the seies.

(43) Bleach Vol 17 by Tite Kubo-it's things like this that make it hard for me to like Byakuya at times...making my Renji all bloody like that...of course, he looks good bloody...this is the volume that made my Renji love go off the charts when I was reading the scanslations a while back.  I mean willing to go through that to protect a friend who you KNOW is probably going to hit your for it later, against the guy you're always trying to match but know you never can?  LOVE!  Oh yeah, other characters I like were around and having fights to, but I am blionded to all that is not Renji in this volume.

(44) The Assassin’s Touch by Laura Joh Rowland-Still a good series, but Matsudaira is no Yanagisawa, and I don't think the altering in the storyline breathed as much life into the series as it was expected to.

(45) Moonshine by Rob Thurman-This series is like Supernatural, only with Supernatural as the light and fluffy version.  It's about Cal and Nico Leandros, half brothers of greek and gypsy descent, and in Cal's case, monsters who spawned most of the scary mythological legends out there.  When Cal was 15, his father's people showed up, killed their mother and took Cal off with them.  Cal showed up in the same place 2 days later, 2 years older and completely insane and convinced they were coming after him.  (He's gotten his sanity back for the most part) Nico packed up his brother, took off, and learned every martial art known to man(as Cal puts it, his trenchcoat isn't a fashion statement, it's a weapons repository for all the sharp pointy things Nico likes to carry around.  Cal prefers guns...the monsters don't get in clawing range that way and he doesn't get his clothes ruined by the blood splatters)  Anyway, to say the least, what with already having been Cal's  mother and father since he was 4(mom wasn't exactly a model parent, to be nice about it) and then that, Nico is a touch over protective.  To the point where if he has to, he WILL wipe out entire races to protect his brother(wise races do not test his determination to do this)  Unlike Supernatural, though, it also has strong OTPs for both guys...Nico has Promise, and vampiress who is possibly the only "person" capable of being his match when it comes to fighting, and Cal has George, a seeress who he's convinced will shatter if she ever finds out what he is(stupid Cal) and he thinks the whole "if I stay away she'll be safe" thing actually works(hey Cal, she gets in trouble when you AREN'T there...stick close and the baddies will be too scared of you to try anything, trust me...)  Unfortunately for Cal, seers make for great stalkers, and having your brother be a shipper doesn't help any(both brothers are shippers...they want their brother to have warm fuzzies)  Anyway, awesome series.

And an excerpt: You say tomato, I say murderous death incarnate.

(46) Vagabond Vol 24 by Takehiko Inoue-Musashi and Kojiro should not be being cute together, they're going to try to kill each other soon.  Other than that, mostly leading up to the Musashi/Denshichiro fight.  Vagabond is one of the best manga titles being put out, but it needs to be read in alottments longer than 200 pages.

I'm currently about 150 pages into George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones and so far so good.