suricattus

There's nothing quite like getting an e-mail first thing in the morning saying "Publishers Weekly* is going to review Burning Bridges." And then realizing that you're not going to know until Monday, at which point you'll be on your way to the airport. Thankfully, obsessive web-surfing came to my rescue...

It's not a rave, but they did seem to like it. The bolded emphasis is mine, obviously. And hey, I meant for it to be convoluted!

Burning Bridges
Laura Anne Gilman. Luna, $14.95 paper (400p) ISBN 978-0-373-80274-6

At the start of Gilman's convoluted but diverting fourth Retrievers fantasy (after 2006's Bring It On), set in a near-future Manhattan, Wren Valere, a professional thief with magical "Talent," and her demon sidekick, P.B., discover the brutalized corpse of an angel. The gutted angel, or winged nonhuman "fatae," turns out to be just one casualty in a heated conflict between Nulls (humans without Talent) and the powerful human Talents, along with the fatae. Not only are bigoted human vigilantes going after supernaturals, but it appears the Silence, a covert organization that used to employee Wren's partner and lover, Sergei Didier, has become corrupted from within. Several Silence Talent operatives have gone missing, and Sergei is drawn back into the group's politics as a new truce falls apart.

Though newcomers to the series might find the plot and multiple cabals a little confusing— with the spy stuff a little too derivative of TV's Alias and not enough fey— Wren's can-do magic is highly appealing. (June)

(I find it amusing that they accuse it of being derivative of Alias, since I never watched the show, but hey, the reviwer, like the reader, makes assumptions that aren't always right...)

* the major publishing industry rag that all my former co-workers and bosses read. Yes, I was a wee bit invested in this, why do you ask?



--- and hey, one of 'my kids' from Roc, Scott Mackay, gets an excllent review for his Phytosphere Yay Scott!