Patricia Briggs     

The Hurog Books — (2002) Patricia Briggs says she will probably write more Hurog Books. Publisher: Most everyone thinks Ward of Hurog is a simple-minded fool-and that's just fine by him. But few people know that his foolishness is (very convincingly) feigned. And that it's all that's saved him from death at the hands of his abusive father — who's always seen Ward as a bitter rival for power. When his father dies, Ward becomes the new lord of Hurog. Until a nobleman declares that he is too dim-witted to rule. Ward knows he cannot play the fool any longer. To regain his kingdom, he must prove himself worthy-and quickly. Riding into a war that's heating up on the border, Ward is sure he's on the fast track to glory. But soon his mission takes a deadly serious turn. For he has seen a pile of magical dragon bones hidden deep beneath Hurog Keep. They are Hurog's most precious, powerful treasure-and Ward is certain his enemies will kill to possess them.

The Mercedes Thompson Books — (2006-2010) A modern paranormal urban fantasy series. There will be at least seven of these. Dabel Brothers and Del Rey are producing a graphic novel based on the series. Publisher: Mercy Thompson's life is not exactly normal. Her next-door neighbor is a werewolf. Her former boss is a gremlin. And she's fixing a VW bus for a vampire. But then, Mercy isn't exactly normal herself.

Some available on audio

Moon Called: Great story and more realistic than Anita Blake

Wow!! I sure hope that Mercedes Thompson will turn into a longer series because Patricia Briggs started off just right. The characters are believable, the way that Ms Briggs handles the various groups (fae, vampires, lycanthropes) is something that you can actually see happening. The situation just feels real.

My favorite part is the main character. Mercedes Thompson is a tough kid with a bad attitude who knows her limitations. Unlike Anita Blake, Mercy actually has limits and vulnerabilities that are real. She gets herself hurt like a normal person would and she's not able to just kill the bad guy despite it all. She's smart, she's talented, and she is realistic. The rest of the supporting cast fits in well around her and each is well developed.

Last thing: NO PORN!!!! Patricia Briggs delivers the sexual tension without having to fall into the trap that Laurell K Hamilton fell into and has not extricated herself from. I hope that Briggs can keep the tension without having to get into unnecessary detail....just leave it to our imagination and most of us will be fine!

Great book, great start!     —John H.   Comments

Mercedes Thompson: What a little moonlight can do.

For a woman raised by wolves — OK, werewolves — Mercedes "Mercy" Thompson has turned out all right. Though Mercy's half-Native-American heritage allows her to shapeshift into a coyote, instead of a wolf, she's taken care of herself by working as a mechanic and keeping her nose out of supernatural matters. But her eastern Washington town has too many such matters: her former boss is one of the fae; her neighbor is the local werewolf Alpha; and her client with the Scooby-Doo-inspired van is a vampire. Moreover, times are changing, as the fae have made themselves known to humanity, which isn't accepting their existence with perfect grace. And though Mercy has found her niche between the natural and supernatural worlds, their slow collision threatens to crush her.

To date, author Patricia Briggs has published three novels starring Mercy (Moon Called, Blood Bound, Iron Kissed), and a fourth (Bone Crossed) is due soon. Each probably can stand on its own, but reading them in order is recommended.

Moon Called:  The arrival of an unknown group of werewolves and werewolf hunters threatens the local pack, forcing Mercy to seek help from the local vampire seethe.
Blood Bound:  Mercy tries to pay off her debt to the vampires by helping them hunt a demon-possessed vampire.
Iron Kissed:  When Mercy's former boss is framed for murder, she defies him and the fae by seeking the true killer.  (No vampires in this one.)

These quick synopses fail to do justice to the fast-paced, complex plotting in each book (and thought-out imagining of the structures and tendencies of werewolf, vampire, and fae societies). Each is told from Mercy's smart, no-nonsense perspective, and it's to the author's credit that, even though I usually like first-person narrators with above-average eloquence, I never tired of her voice. True, I have my quibbles (e.g. the first-person viewpoint is limited in its ability to present information, which is tough in novels that rely heavily on mystery; and also, there are a few long passages of deduction or conversation that seemed to go a bit too perfectly to get to the right outcome) — but overall, the writing is solid and keeps things moving. It's also mostly free of sex and profanity (though with regard to the latter, there are a few too many instances of someone starting to curse and stopping short).

Although these books lack that superior element of style, enlightenment, or brilliant plotting that would warrant a fifth star, they're solid modern fantasy/action/mystery entertainment. Granted, my offspring and work schedule have (temporarily, I hope) deprived me of the time and capacity for "weightier" works, but I read all three of these in less than two weeks (and just checked out Cry Wolf, the first in a related series).

Recommended as paperback purchases or library loans for fans of this genre who are at least of high school age. 3-1/2 stars for Moon Called; 4 for Blood Bound due to its plot; 4 for Iron Kissed due to a well-done climax (in which Mercy really suffers).  —Rob R.   Comments

Iron Kissed

This it the third volume of Mercedes Thompson and to this point Patricia Briggs has done a wonderful job of blending relationship stuff with some interesting, at times tense, urban fantasy. She has a great grip on the world she is writing and her heroine, Mercy Thompson, is very well developed.

Ok, here comes the reason this got 5 stars: Mercedes Thompson gets the crap kicked out of her in a major lasting way and it's completely her own fault. Talk about a great change from some of the other urban fantasy authors who let their characters get away with being stupid over and over again. The details would spoil the story, but let's just say that Mercy stays true to who she has been so far and pays for it big time. Warning...what happens to her is really harsh and for some people may be a bit too traumatic for easy reading. This is an adult series, so I don't have a problem with it, but keep that in mind.

Iron Kissed took a little while to really get going. There was a little more of the relationship/romance stuff than before, but it's not so cloying that it degrades the story into a romance. If you liked the first two Mercedes Thompson books, then Iron Kissed will be a treat, too.   —John H.   Comments

Bone Crossed

In Bone Crossed, the fourth installment in the Mercedes Thompson series, Mercy is learning to cope with her new role as the mate of the local werewolf pack while still suffering the effects of a horrific assault that occurred at the climax of Iron Kissed. Complications from inter-species conflicts remain a central theme, and her relationship challenges don’t simply fade away, but Mercy Thompson does not cry mercy.

Patricia Briggs keeps the story moving, introducing new plot elements which require Mercy to constantly re-evaluate and adjust. Another author might wave a magic wand and make things all better for Mercy, but Briggs doesn’t, and my respect for her writing deepens as a result. Too many authors leave their heroes static, allowing everything to magically work out right without much effort by the characters. But just as real life keeps tossing us problems, so Briggs doesn’t let Mercy rest. It’s not that she's on a non-stop wheel of pain — it’s just that she doesn’t get to skip through life without paying the bill for being an agent of change. New issues continue to pop up, and past choices by supporting characters come back to haunt Mercy and her friends. I love that Briggs makes her heroine deal with the second and third order effects of having broken with tradition and made enemies in the past.

Bone Crossed is not a long story, and Briggs doesn’t cover lots of new ground here, but there is still plenty to absorb in this well-written novel. Patricia Briggs deserves high marks for maintaining a high level of realism (and high quality writing) in a genre that's not consistently known for that. Briggs keeps both feet on the ground while leading us on another exciting chase through an urban fantasy world that is better developed than any other I have read.  —John H.   Comments

Stand-alone novels:
The Hob's Bargain — (2001) Publisher: To save her village from ruthless raiders, Aren of Fallbrook strikes a bargain with the Hob, a magical, humanlike creature imbued with the power of the mountains. But the Hob will exact a heavy price to defend the village — a price Aren herself must pay.

The Hob's Bargain: Too short, but not bad.

I think that the ability to create a world that is filled with magic and unknown places is perhaps too great a task to do in one book. There is a degree of detail that we, as readers, have come to expect due to the growing trend of long multi-volume series.

In The Hob's Bargain, Patricia Briggs does a good job of telling a story within the constraints of a single volume. The heroine is interesting and relatively likeable, but not terribly believable. That's probably because there simply isn't enough space in a single short volume to do much in the way of character development.

The setting is a small village that goes through several disasters in a short time. The heroine loses her new husband and her family and is plagued by an onset of magical power in a community that equates magic with evil. Add to this mix the return of mythical magical creatures and you have a pretty good idea of what's going on.

Patricia Briggs is a great author whose work in other series I have really enjoyed. The Hob's Bargain is not her best novel, but it works well if you need a good quick read. —John H.   Comments