Black Tattoo

The Black Tattoo by Sam Enthoven

I hate to admit it but I picked this up based mostly on its cover. It just screamed too cool for school. And then I started reading it and couldn’t put it down. It’s a very quick and engrossing read, with plenty of action and a fresh take on the demon/hell subgenre.

Black Tattoo is the story of three teens and their attempts to thwart the evil Scourge, a demon intent on destroying all of reality. Esme is the young heroine who has magical abilities, such as flight, but can also kick major bootie with a sword and hand to hand combat. Then there is Charlie, whose parents recently divorced. He is pretty angry at his parents and the world. Then all of a sudden he is given magical abilities because of a mysterious black tattoo that appears on his body. Having unlimited power and being angry is not the best situation a young man could find himself in. Fortunately for Charlie he has his best friend for the ride, Jack. After Esme and Charlie, Jack is just a normal everyday teen. Through out the journey he proves time again that despite not having powers, and being pretty much scared witless all the time even a normal boy can become a hero.

What I really liked about this book though is where the second half of the book occurs, Hell. Although it resembles a fire and brimstone hell, it really is its own world, full of different monsters, gladiator battles, and a mysterious dragon at the heart of reality.

I’d highly recommend this book. It’s the perfect distraction on a winter afternoon.

Monster Planet

Monster Planet: A Zombie Novel

This book is third in David Wellington’s zombie series. The first book is Monster Island, (but actually happens to be the second in story chronology). The second of the series published (but first in story chronology) is Monster Nation. All are great book and work as a trilogy, although I think there may be more to come.

We are all, or at least should be, familiar with zombie apocalypses. Wellington’s Monster series follows the traditional outline of zombie attacks, that is the dead rise from the dead, eat the living, the living fight back to only realize that they (humanity) are the real monsters. Zombies, from a character stand point, are kind of like one trick ponies; they eat people and that’s about it. Wellington diverges from the zombie norm by incorporating lich (rhymes with ditch) zombies, or liches in the plural. Liches are badass zombies who retain their personalities and gain magical abilities. They also want to destroy the rest of humanity (not just eat it).

Overall Wellington does a great job at combining the old with the new. The action sequences are great. The humans are just the right amount of desperate, the zombies are just the right amount of hungry and the liches are just to cool for school. Highly recommended!

Eclipse

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

What is it about vampires that people find sexy? I’ve never quite understood the fascination with being made the meal of a blood-thirsty creature of the night. Anne Rice certainly made a career out of showing the exotic side of vampires, and now Stephenie Meyer has done the same thing for the young adult audience.

This series is quickly becoming a juggernaut. If it will ever overtake Harry Potter in terms of ubiquitous popularity remains to be seen, but these books are insanely popular. Eclipse is the third in the series, and like Harry Potter, they must be read in order. Twilight, New Moon, and now Eclipse follow the exploits of Bella Swan, who moves to Forks, Washington, to live with her sheriff father. Once in school, she becomes enamoured with a family of extremely beautiful brothers and sisters, and begins a relationship with the most beautiful, Edward. This relationship is immediately the only thing in Bella’s life, and all of her other relationships are jeopardized. Edward’s desire for Bella goes beyond just her personality, as it turns out he’s a vampire, but they manage to make it work. That is until they have a big dramatic break-up, Bella runs off with a friend of hers, Jacob, who turns out to be a werewolf. Thus, the horrible question is presented: which creature of the night will she chose to love?

Snake Agent

Snake Agent by Liz Williams

Meet Inspector Chen, the Singapore police department’s snake agent. A snake agent is the detective in charge of all supernatural disturbances. Chen can literally go to Heaven or Hell, speak with ghosts, and even partner with another detective, one who just happens to be a demon! Chen isn’t like other snake agents though. He is somewhat of free thinker and has even married a demon whom he aided to escape from hell.

Liz Williams has done a masterful job of updating the detective genre. She has mingled it with horror, through the supernatural, and fantasy by drawing on a rich tapestry of eastern mythology, as well a dash of sci-fi with very cool technology. The best part that I personally enjoyed is the dynamic relationship between Heaven, Hell, and Earth. This isn’t a three tiered universe with Heaven above us, or Hell below, but rather all three are next door to one another. Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean you might not just step into Hell around the next street corner. Instead of having these realms in a hierarchical scheme, Heaven, Hell, and Earth all contribute to a overall balance. In this light Chen becomes more of a protector of this balance then a harbinger of justice.

On the other hand, this book did take me a while to get into, almost a hundred pages. This could very well be because it is the first of a series and therefore has to set the ground rules of this new literary world. But once I was hooked I kept on wanting to open up the cover and read any chance I could. If this creative amalgam sounds like fun, take a chance and pick up a copy.