another urban fantasy with vampires and werewolves, this time set in australia; moon sworn by keri arthur

One of Australia's most prolific writers of urban fantasy, Keri Arthur has released another in her Riley Jenson Guardian series, Moon Sworn. 

Like the majority of books in this genre, the Guardian series has a feisty, supernatural, female protagonist; baddies who are also supernatural; a shadowy government organisation of some sort which allows said protagonist to literally get away with murder; and a bit of raunchy sex.
Ho hum, yet another urban fantasy that seems as though it's been cut from the same cloth as all the others out there. Which is such a shame as Arthur isn't a bad writer.
What the Riley Jensen series does have going for it is that unlike the majority of the other books and series in this genre, it's actually set in a country other than America. Arthur has based the books in her hometown of Melbourne, Australia, making the setting, at least, more interesting.
Riley, the said heroine, is a half vampire, half werewolf – yep, two for the price of one – who works for the Guardians, ie. The shadowy government organisation that keeps all the other supernaturals in check.
She's in love with a handsome, and powerful, vampire (of course) and he loves her and they're always interested in having a bit of raunchy sex … yawn.
Added interest – Riley has a brother who's gay, yay, something slightly different. But no, he's also in a loving relationship with another sexy vampire. Again, yawn.
So, the basic premise is fairly ordinary. Still, Moon Sworn isn't a bad read. This time around some of Riley's previous escapades come back to haunt her and she ends up stuck in the middle of outback Australia with bits missing from her memory and a sneaking suspicion that some thing's wrong. Of course.
Ideally you really need to have read the other eight books in the series to really know what's going on, and to understand why the guy who took her memory and dumped her in the outback did it.
Riley manages to find herself in the middle of a murder investigation, which helps her remember bits and pieces about who she is and how she got in the mess she's in. Eventually, she works it all out, is reunited with the love of her life and sorts out some family business fairly thoroughly.
And that's about it. If Arthur put her mind to it, she could easily be a very good author. Her books aren't bad, it's just that there are so many of the same genre over-stocking the bookshelves at the moment. It's as though every author in the world decided to jump on the Twilight bandwagon at exactly the same time.
Unfortunately for authors like Arthur, there's much better stuff out there already, and has been for some time. Classic Anne Rice and the long-running series from Laurell K Hamilton, Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter, as well as Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels.
But, if you love the genre – and like many, I still do – you'll enjoy the differences in Arthur's books that make them worth picking up. After all, it could be worse, you could be reading the Twilight series.

Moon Sworn by Keri Arthur is published by Piatkus, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group and is available from good book stores and online.

sunshine state by james miller is a scary eco-thriller of global warming, militant religions & dirty wars

James Miller's latest book, Sunshine State, is a very scary thing to read. If you are one of those people who are concerned about global warming, environmental degradation or holes in the ozone layers, then this book will scare you too.

Books like The Things That Keep Us Here by Carla Buckley, Down to A Sunless Sea by David Graham and Flood by Stephen Baxter are part of a growing eco-thriller genre that is making inroads into the science fiction world.
Like the books mentioned, Sunshine State is not a non-fiction tome written by a crusty scientist or a crazy environmentalist, it's a novel that combines a couple of issues that are of central concern in this day and age.
One: The terrible impact of the dirty wars occurring repeatedly around the world; and Two: The apparent increase in terrible weather systems that are devastating certain parts of the United States' coast.
Miller's book is a kind of 'mash-up' of these two themes. Mark Burrows is a member of the British secret service. He's trying to get out; his wife is pregnant, his best mate is dead and he feels like he's dying a little every time he goes on another mission.
Mark came to manhood in the heat of various deserts, a part of the UK's dirty wars. He followed orders, and followed them well, but now he is beginning to question whether or not his entire life was wrong.
Out of the screaming blue sky of a London engulfed in a major, long-lasting heatwave, Mark is given his last mission – to head for the "Storm Zone" in the US and track down his best mate; the man who is supposed to be dead.
The reason why Sunshine State is so scary is because it is completely believable. The references to Hurricane Katrina – which has already occurred – are factual spices to the future-present recipe of Miller's book. The Storm Zone is a swathe of destroyed country that's taken out most of Louisiana, southern California and other southern American states. The cities are gone, the people are mad, scared or locked tight behind giant walls and the army uses the whole area as a "training zone".
When reading about the Storm Zone – with its micro-communities of hippies and clubbers; Apocalyptics waiting for the world to end, drug runners and the Queer Liberation Army escaping from zealous born-again Christianity – you can see the ideas have all come from things that are happening now in America and around the world.
Interspersed with Mark's trip into the insanity that is the Storm Zone, are excerpts from interviews he had with a psychologist after his last disastrous mission with his former best friend, Charlie Ashe. These fragments give the reader an insight into what Mark is really all about; how he became the “invisible man” of British intelligence.
There's a defined strand of militant religiosity also running through Sunshine State. First, the Muslim terrorists that Mark and Charlie kill by the thousands in the desert and then the creepy, Pastor as the President of the United States and his white, gun-totting "Witch Hunters".
Miller carefully paints no one religion as being any worse than the other; but they both appear to be mad in his rendering. It is the militancy that stands out; true believers of both faiths are painted more gently.
Sunshine State is a great read; it's intelligently written, it's set not far into the future so non-science fiction lovers will enjoy the action and the themes give you a disconcerting feeling that what it's talking about could really happen. While Sunshine State might not scare everyone, it will certainly make you think a little more seriously about recycling your rubbish.

Sunshine State by James Miller is published by Little, Brown and is available from good book stores and online.

great fun with de la cruz' young adult vampire fiction: revelations and the van alen legacy

In Revelations and The Van Alen Legacy, we return to Melissa de la Cruz' world of the “Blue Bloods”. Think Gossip Girl with vampires and you'd be just about right.

Of course, there's the dorky girl – old name family fallen on bad times – and the ice princess – snooty blonde with a weird thing for her twin brother – so these books are entirely too fluffy to be read.
In fact, although de la Cruz' books are nominally Young Adult fiction, they're way more raunchy and interesting than those horrible Twilight things. Schuyler Van Alen, Mimi Force and her twin Jack and other various teens are punchy, re-born vampires with long memories, strong sex drives and entrenched rivalries.
The only odd thing is that they're expected to graduate from high school.
After the first two books – Blue Bloods and Masquerade – Schuyler has discovered that she's actually a “half blood” vampire and her true love Jack is Mimi's soul mate. Which is a bit of a problem since Jack and Schuyler are having problems keeping their hands off each other.
Then there's the Silver Bloods – other vampires who live on vampire blood and basically turn evil. Oh, they're Satan's minions too. Although Satan is really Lucifer (as in “bearer of light”) and now he appears to have broken free of his prison.
On top of this, Schuyler's newly rediscovered Grandfather has been taken away from her – she has to live with her arch nemesis Mimi (no, not entirely sure how that happened but apparently Mimi's dad is Schuyler's uncle!) and there's something wrong with her former friend Dylan (who may be a Silver Blood) and her best mate Oliver (who she kind of turned into her familiar).
Whew! So, Schuyler's got to save herself, her friends and the world of the Blue Bloods while trying to graduate and make-out with Jack. Oh, and she's become a top fashion model too.
These are great, fun books. The stories are preposterous but the characters are relatively realistic. The teen angst of new love, coupled with realising you really ARE different from everybody else, explains why de la Cruz' has become so popular.
If you have concerns about your “young adults” having sex and thinking about biting people, these books aren't for you. But if you want to give them something fun to read that will resonate with them and perhaps put them off having sex and/or biting people, then the Blue Bloods series is a winner.
Apparently there's another book just around the corner, Misguided Angels, and The Repository – kind of like a Blue Blood history – will be out in June.

Revelations and The Van Alen Legacy by Melissa de la Cruz are published by Atom, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group and are available from good book stores and online.

Read my review of the first two books; Blue Bloods and Masquerade.