Urban Fantasy is a family thing in "Discount Armageddon"

Cryptozoology, noun: The study of creatures that have not been proven by science.

Cryptozoologist, noun: Any person that who thinks hunting for cryptids is a good idea.  See also "idiot".

The idea and science of creatures that have wandered thru our imaginations for centuries has finally been given a proper name all to itself. Cryptozoology. The supernatural and mythological now seem to have a common ground for being studied in earnest. With sightings of Big Foot, the Yeti, lake monsters, primates and cross bred species  and so many other various legends that are so immersed in countries  around the world, its amazing that only now, are these legendary creatures finally being given a category all their own.
Some of this might be due to the SyFy channel's show Destination Truth.  A 5 season program hosted by Josh Gates. He as his team  packed down with all the latest monster hunting equipment, go from one country to the next investigating local monster sightings and legends. It was a popular program, one that I watched as often as I could. Some say it was all hoaxed, but the investigating team, thru all the mishaps and joking around they went thru before getting down to the meat of the matter, were as truthful to their misson as anyone. And watching it, once they were out in the middle of a dense rain forest jungle with only their equipment and tents, anywhere from 11pm to five am in the morning, it kept you on edge, looking for and hoping they came across  something. Because of that show, I believe the idea of Cryptids being a real thing got its calling.

And with that, The Price family, a family tree of Cryptid hunters, thru out the ages comes to light in one of the best written and enjoyable urban monster novels ever. Seanan McGuire, the author of the October Daye series, crafts a fun and witty and incredibly imaginative story of the Price family, featuring Verity Price, one of three siblings that has been trained from birth as a Cryptozoologist,  spending a year in Manhattan, studying all the creatures, boogiemen, ghoulies and what have you that have  moved and settled into the great city.

Verity has other aspirations of being a ballroom dancer and practices when she can inbetween her studies of the local habitat.  She works in a local strip bar as a waitress, working side by side with several of the dancers that also happen to be Medusas and dragons. 
Waiting for her at home in her apartment are a colony of Aeslin Mice, field mice like rodents that seem to live  by religious pageantry. They are sapient and smart and will create a religious holiday celebrating anything at the drop of the hat.  To me, one of my favorite elements in this series.

The one thing that happens to threaten both harmless, fruitful and sometimes deadly cryptids is the arrival of one of the Price families oldest enemies, the Covenant of St. George, a holy organization eons old that is dedicated to the extermination of unknown or unclassified creatures that they consider a blasphemy to god and man.  When Verity clashes against one of its newest members, she finds him a little more reasonable and willing to listen before calling in the troops to Manhattan to initiate the purge of all cryptids great and small.
To add to that, the disappearances of creatures from the city that have been there for a while due to the rumor that a Dragon is sleeping beneath the city, and  no one wants to be around when a dragon awakes.

From the introduction and the first chapter I have to say that I was totally hooked. For me, this was one of those books I wanted to slow down and read, just to make it last longer. Seanan McGuire has the ability to intertwine this story, add humor to it and crate memorable characters that are so different from her other series.  There isn't a hint of the way she writes in the October Daye series, not that there is anything wrong with it, but she is more than able to separate both series completely writing in a style that compliments the "Incryptid" series.

I highly recommend this book if you like creatures and monsters that can be both legendary as well as being the same person you might just happen to work next too.
The novel also lists a music playlist, similar to the  what Rachel Caine does in her Weather Warden series, which I will be reviewing soon here. There is also a mini glossary to some of the cryptids that re featured in this book.
If you love or even like this book, I urge you to go to her website;
http://seananmcguire.com/incryptid.php

Here, you will find more detailed history about the Price Family and its long ago old timers that seem to have more than overstayed they're welcome. It offers short stories on the website concerning  the world of Incryptids and other family members as well as information about the Covenant of St. George. There is artwork and wallpapers and icons to use on your computer and many other things here. as well as link to to the October Daye series.

I highly suggest checking it out.

As for me, I'm outta here.   See you next time.

Review: Deadtown a novel by Nancy Holzner

Reading urban fantasy and horror is something I love to do almost more than anything. Notice I said 'almost'.  The thing about urban fantasy that attracted me to it in the first place were the characters. For me, the main character is always female, and always has some kick ass power of some sort or are shape shifters with powers.

These bad-ass women, fight and break their way thru the streets and  cities, as either police detectives or private investigators as well as maybe some other side line. But those female fighters usually have at least one power they can use to fight off the big baddies form taking over the city if not the world.
These urban fantasy novels are and have been, for the most part written by women. Recently, some male authors have come on the scene, writing females characters as well, and not to take anything from them, but  its just not the same thing.

So, with that brief intro about what urban fantasy is, I'd like to comment and recommend on one of those novels right now.

Deadtown by Nancy Holzner is one of possibly five favorite urban fantasy series and could possibly be my fave. Possibly. I have this weird feeling that if I make one of the series my favorite then the others will feel betrayed. Rightttt.

Deadtown is one of the most original urban fantasy novel and series that I have read to date.

 

In a nutshell, Deadtown is about the dead coming back to life. Yes, zombies, but not in the way you'd suspect at least. Five years before, the paranormal happened to become normal. Meaning that every beastie and monster that anyone ever looked under the bed for came virtually out of the closet. Vampires, werewolves, trolls, ogres, witches and just about any off things. But not only in the downtown Boston area, but in all the major cities thru out the world.

 

Then two years after that, the plague hit the center of downtown Boston, also known as the new Combat zone. The plague only hit humans. so in less than an hour a couple of thousand humans all fell lifeless.  Soon the humans had a use for the paranormals by enlisting them to help build up a barricade around the combat zone to keep everyone out. IN about three days though, those dead bodies began to come back to life. As Zombies. But not in the way that you would think. They came back to life looking like zombies but acting the way they did  in life before they all died from the plague.  Scientists, after examining the strain found that it was a million in one weird virus that had effected everyone. They also found that there was no trace of it left in the air at all. But now, the norms outside the borders of Deadtown, as the combat zone had officially been called, were afraid of these zombies, even though they came back to life as they were mentally, they still had the hideous look of night of the living dead population. So, the borders stayed up and passes were issued to those zombies that were able to attain work. But their lives and work places and family, no longer cared or recognized most of them. So Deadtown came into being.

 

This series follows the exploits of on Vicky Vaughn. a cerredonian, a family lineage that has both males and females of that race  as demon slayers and shape shifters. Vicky is a shape shifter and Boston's only resident demon slayer.

Vicky's demanding job of keeping the city safe from all manner of monsters and demon entities keeps her more than busy. Throw in the fact that she has a teenaged zombie apprentice, a demon plagued client and a mysterious research facility that has become interested in Vicky's normal sisters family outside the borders of Deadtown, and the fact that one of them most hideous demons from Hell, the one that killed her father 10 years before is now coming after her, is keeping her form getting a least one good night sleep.

 

I can say enough about this book and the rest of the series. So far there are five books, I'm almost done reading the fifth now. This is the type of book that you really don't want to end. And so far as I can tell there should be more novels on the way.

The writing is great, refreshing plots and characters that you can care about. This is one of the series I read that each book comes off like its actually just one chapter in a much bigger book. Its definitely worth picking up.

 

If you have any questions of course, please feel free to ask or comment.

 

 

 



DEADTOWN

 



 

                                                                                                                    

Beginings....

Welcome to The Well of Media Magic.

I'm Jeff and this is the start of something new I've had in my head for a while now. I had first wanted to do a simple blog about some of the books I've read in the past which consists of a lot of Urban Fantasy, Horror and comic related publications like comic books and graphic novels.

But as I hashed it out, I realized that I wouldn't be able to just stay in that vein and knew that I would eventually stray away into other realms that I'm even more into.  The answer is the blog you see in front of you. A blog that is not simply restricted to publications such as paperback books and graphic novels but all the media that contains that genre.

I want to thank my good and close friend, Erin, who has her blog as well. She is an avid reader and true bibliophile in the truest sense of the word. So I want to give her a shout out to her blog called; The Paperback Stash. Her love of books is incredible like mine, but to the nth level. So please go and check her blog out.
Here's the link:

http://www.thepaperbackstash.blogspot.com/

Tell her I sent you.

To continue on, I just want to say for this first outing, I'll be talking about the genres I listed above but in everything that they include; such as books, movies, reviews and discussions and anything thing else I happen to think of at the time.  This is definitely a work in progress, so please bear with me. I welcome and suggestions and comments as to how I can make this an even better blog. Of course, you should wait until I actually post something of interest first.

So this is just a welcome to you all and I hope you yourselves have a good time  here.