We’ve talked before about how much I enjoy the TV show Castle. For those who have missed it, it’s a writer who is friends with the mayor who gets permission to ride around with a (female) homicide detective so he can learn what she does and get ideas for his next series. In the shows, he writes a book about his new protagonist, Nikki Heat, and the first book in the series is called Heat Wave. It turns out that the folks over at ABC decided to actually write the book, and publish it. And it’s actually pretty good. If you like the show, and you enjoy reading, you’ll probably like the book. It’s kind of short, and it’s mostly a carbon copy of the show – with names changed… oh, except it’s the relationship Castle wishes he has with Beckett. The humor from the show is in there, so there were some laugh out loud moments. And he (well, the writers who are writing as Castle) makes Nikki Heat a strong woman who is more than capable of taking care of herself… without making her superwoman. It’s not a fantastic book, but it’s an entertaining read with a pretty good plot.

I love the Kitty Norville series, so I was excited that the seventh book in the series, Kitty’s House of Horrors, was released last week. The series is in a transition period, going from one major plot arc to another, and this book is setting us up for future books. It’s still a great book, but not quite as good as previous books in the series have been. But, I don’t like horror movies, and this book could easily be made into a horror movie, so someone else may think it’s the best book yet. I have the Kitty Norville series listed as #6 on my Fiction for Grown Ups page, and I see no reason to change that. It’s a good series.

A friend recommended this new series, The Black Sun’s Daughter, to me, and I really enjoyed both books. In Unclean Spirits, Jayné (pronounced zha nay) arrives in Denver to settle her dead Uncle’s estate, only to discover he was rich (as in, properties and accounts all over the world – an empire), and he was killed by something that isn’t human. As she gets a crash course in the reality she never knew existed, she’s having to fight these things and figure out how to take out the “thing” that killed her uncle. The story continues in Darker Angels, and the long term plot arc just gets more and more interesting. The main plot in Darker Angels revolves around the voodoo gods (so, of course, it takes place in New Orleans) and the author skillfully weaves the voodoo stuff into the worldbuilding of this series’ universe. The plot has a ton of twists and turns and you really don’t know who’s coming and who is going until very close to the end. I can’t wait for the third book, Vicious Grace… but apparently I’ve got another seven or eight months to wait. It turns out that M.L.N. Hanover is a pen name for Daniel Abraham, who has written a series called The Long Price. I’ve enjoyed The Black Sun’s Daughter enough that the next time I run out of things to read, I’ll consider checking out this author’s other series.

However, there are about to be a whole lot of books I like released. And right now RK and I are watching Dexter (here is where I blogged about it, if you missed it), so as far as entertainment goes, we’re good. Here are some other books coming out in the next few months that I can’t wait to read:

Flirt (Anita Blake novella) by Laurell K. Hamilton (Feb 2)
First Drop of Crimson (Night Huntress World, Bk 1) Jeaniene Frost (Feb 9)
Black Magic Sanction (Hollows/Rachel Morgan, Bk 8) Kim Harrison (Feb 23)
Roadkill (Cal Leandros book 5) by Rob Thurman (March 2)
The Spellmans Strike Again (Spellman Files, Book 4) Lisa Lutz (March 16)
Voices of Dragons (new YA series) by Carrie Vaughn, March 16
Silver Borne (Mercy Thompson, Book 5) Patricia Briggs (March 30)

If you don’t like Urban Fantasy then the only books I’ve discussed today that might interest you would be Heat Wave and The Spellmans Strike Again. But if you like Urban Fantasy then you are probably thrilled that we’re about to get more Anita Blake, a story about Spade from the world of Cat and Bones, another Rachel Morgan book (I’ve got to re-read the last few books before I read the next one), and the next Mercy Thompson book. That’s a whole lot of good stuff coming out in just a little over two months.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 9th, 2010 at 10:49 am and is filed under Book, CD, & DVD Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.