{"id":1093,"date":"2014-09-24T06:34:59","date_gmt":"2014-09-24T06:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/?p=1093"},"modified":"2014-09-24T06:34:59","modified_gmt":"2014-09-24T06:34:59","slug":"urban-fantasy-review-vicious-grace-by-m-l-n-hanover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/2014\/09\/urban-fantasy-review-vicious-grace-by-m-l-n-hanover\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban Fantasy Review: ‘Vicious Grace’ by M L N Hanover"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"This is the third of the \u2018Black Sun\u2019s Daughter\u2019 series of urban fantasies, written under a pseudonym by Daniel Abraham. The first, \u2018Unclean Spirits\u2019, was a bit spotty, overfull of angst, shopping sprees and housecleaning, not to mention a certain amount of breathless sex. The second, \u2018Darker Angels\u2019, was a lot better in all respects, and this one picks up even more. The plot revolves around Jayn\u00e9 and sidekicks Ex, Chogyi Jake and Aubrey (yes, yes, the names are terrible, and what makes it worse is that the minor characters have perfectly normal names). Jayn\u00e9 has inherited a vast array of property from her nice uncle Eric, acquired during his career messing around with supernatural nasties, in particular \u2018riders\u2019, demons which inhabit human bodies. Jayn\u00e9 and pals have to continue his efforts, while not really knowing what he was up to.<\/span><\/p>\n

The author expertly reprises the key events of the previous books, so even though it\u2019s a while since I read book 2, and I usually have trouble remembering even something I read last week, I was never floundering in the slightest. That\u2019s a skill that few authors can boast. This book involves a summons from Aubrey\u2019s ex-wife Kim, and since he\u2019s now Jayn\u00e9\u2019s boyfriend, a certain amount of romantic angsting ensues. There are some revelations about uncle Eric, too, who turns out to have been less than nice. Not at all nice, in fact. <\/span><\/p>\n

For anyone who is put off by characters agonising over relationships and the distressing consequences of using magic to achieve your nefarious ends, this may not be the book for you. Personally, I found this aspect of the story compelling and emotionally charged, bringing some much-needed depth to the characters and their histories. Jayn\u00e9 has to face up to her situation and make some difficult decisions, and she grows up visibly during the course of the story. She\u2019s come a long way from the shopaholic girl of book 1.<\/span><\/p>\n

The action part of the story is a corker, too. Without giving too much away, it revolves around a vast hospital complex that conceals a dark secret in its basement, which causes some very disturbing things to happen. There\u2019s a part where the hospital begins to change its very nature to counteract the evil within it which is trying to escape. The result is pure horror, very surreal and unearthly. <\/span><\/p>\n

And then the ending is very dark. Anyone looking for a light, fluffy read should steer well away from this series. For anyone prepared to ponder the nature of friendship and love and sacrifice, willing or otherwise, this book is deeply rewarding. At the end, Jayn\u00e9 makes a decision which raises a whole otherworld of moral issues. It\u2019s complex, very complex, and I salute the author for not shying away from the questions and not making things easy for Jayn\u00e9. <\/span><\/p>\n

This is the best yet in this series, with a compelling surface plot, some unexpected backstory, and hints about the meaning of the series title at last. The final line wasn\u2019t too hard to predict, but it\u2019s still an effective hook into the next book in the series. A very good four stars.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the third of the \u2018Black Sun\u2019s Daughter\u2019 series of urban fantasies, written under a pseudonym by Daniel Abraham. The first, \u2018Unclean Spirits\u2019, was a bit spotty, overfull of angst, shopping sprees and housecleaning, not to mention a certain amount of breathless sex. The second, \u2018Darker Angels\u2019, was a lot better in all respects, and this one picks up even more. The plot revolves around Jayn\u00e9 and sidekicks Ex, Chogyi Jake and Aubrey (yes, yes, the names are terrible, and what makes it worse is that the minor characters have perfectly normal names). Jayn\u00e9 has inherited a vast array of property from her nice uncle Eric, acquired during his career messing around with supernatural nasties, in particular \u2018riders\u2019, demons which inhabit human bodies. Jayn\u00e9 and pals have to continue his efforts, while not really knowing what he was up to. The author expertly reprises the key events of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[63],"tags":[77],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1093"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1095,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093\/revisions\/1095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}