Marjorie M. Liu is an attorney who has lived and worked throughout Asia. She hails from both coasts, but currently resides in the Midwest, where she writes full-time.
Learn more at Marjorie M. Liu's website. Read Kelly's interview with Marjorie M. Liu.
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Dirk & Steele — (2005-2011) Book 4, A Dream of Stone and Shadow, is published in the novel Dark Dreamers with a story by Christine Feehan. Publisher: When a young psychic acquires a riddle box in Beijing, China, she learns she can free the shapeshifter imprisoned inside, and that he is the beginning of an adventure — and a love — of a lifetime.
Tiger Eye
Having enjoyed Marjorie M. Liu’s Hunter Kiss urban fantasy series, I decided to look into her paranormal romance series, Dirk & Steele.
Tiger Eye is the first novel in the Dirk & Steele sequence. The heroine, Dela Reese, is a sculptor with a psychic affinity for metal. On a trip to China, she buys a mysterious riddle box and finds herself bound to Hari, an immortal shapeshifter, by magical forces beyond their control. What follows is a fast-paced plot in which the two must evade danger (both mundane and supernatural) and contend with their growing feelings for one another.
The romance is well-written, with a great deal of depth and emotion; the love scenes are both sizzling and tender. Fans of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s early novels will enjoy Tiger Eye, and I suspect that fans of Anne Bishop's Black Jewels series will feel the same way.
Stylistically, Tiger Eye is written in simpler, less avant-garde prose than the Hunter Kiss books; which series you prefer will likely be a matter of taste. Like Hunter Kiss, though, Tiger Eye has moments where the prose is so beautiful that I had to stop reading and grin at the pages, often through a tear or two.
Most of the conflict in Tiger Eye is external. If you're into romances where the protagonists bicker constantly throughout the story, you won't find that here. However, if you're looking for interesting characters, haunting magic, and “true love conquering all,” you need look no further.
—Kelly Lasiter
I recently had the opportunity to try out Tiger Eye Part I: Curse of the Riddle Box, a casual game released in April 2010 by PassionFruit Games. The game is based on the first half of the novel Tiger Eye by Marjorie M. Liu.
A disclaimer: I’m not as well-versed in casual games and hidden-object games as some other players might be; my gaming background is more in point-and-click adventure games (favorites include The Longest Journey, The Secret Files: Tunguska, and Barrow Hill). Those old pixel-hunting skills served me well, though, in the hidden-object sections of Tiger Eye!
Hidden object scenarios make up a large part of the game, and they’re set in locations from the book, some of them stunningly beautiful. So, for example, you’ll hunt for magic objects in a Beijing market and search for toiletries in an opulent hotel bath. The difficulty of finding objects varies. I found that in every scene, there were a few items I found right away, and there was always one last thing that took forever to find. The game also includes other types of puzzles, such as word puzzles, Match-3 (Bedazzled-style) games, connecting shower pipes, connecting neurons to activate Dela’s psychic power, and assembling jumbled pictures. Again, the difficulty varies, but hints are available and many mini-games can be skipped if you’re totally stumped. The games fit the plot — always a welcome thing.
The romance plot between Dela and Hari takes place during the cutscenes. (Dela looks exactly like I imagined her, but I hadn’t pictured Hari as a redhead!) Liu wrote the script herself, and it’s faithful to the book. I look forward to seeing the rest of the story unfold in the subsequent game.
Tiger Eye Part I: Curse of the Riddle Box is a game that’s easy to squeeze into your schedule. It doesn’t take long to load, and when you decide to exit, it saves your game wherever you happen to be. It’s also not a long game overall. I’m a sucker for games of epic length, and so I’d have been happy to see this game run longer or be united with Part II. Yet this was a fun gaming experience, and I’m quite glad I gave it a try. —Kelly Lasiter
In The Dark of Dreams
In the beautifully written prologue to In the Dark of Dreams, a young human girl meets a mer-boy on the beach near her family home. The moment is brief and the two are torn away from each other, but they never forget each other and see each other in dreams for many years afterward.
Fast-forward to the present: Jenny (the girl) and Perrin (the boy) have both grown to adulthood and have picked up their share of physical and emotional scars along the way. Jenny travels the world hoping to find merpeople again, while Perrin has been banished from the sea and is trying to live as a human man. Their lives are changed when they begin to have the dreams again — just in time to face a host of dangers ranging from mercenaries and thugs to an ancient, eldritch being who threatens all life on Earth. Marjorie M. Liu does a great job with the latter in particular, making the creature frightening but not “evil” and hinting at an epic history. As Jenny and Perrin deal with these problems, they become reacquainted with each other and develop a more grown-up love.
At about the halfway point, I found myself having trouble connecting with the story. When I thought about it, I realized the problem was that Liu had left Perrin’s past too mysterious. There are hints of crimes committed, and before I could “invest” in him as a character, I wanted more details so I could be sure he wasn’t a jerk and wouldn’t be abusive toward Jenny. I finally decided that Liu was “vouching” for him by making him the hero in the first place and was able to get past this issue. Most of my questions are eventually answered. Even after finishing the book, though, I still want to know more about what happened with Rik and Surinia. I suspect those details will come out in a later book focusing on Rik.
In the Dark of Dreams is an intense paranormal romance filled with deep love and deep sorrow. There’s plenty of action, too, and a cast of interesting characters. Eddie and the dog are particularly lovable. The main “villain” (in quotation marks because it’s really more a force of nature than a “bad guy” per se) is original, and the means of defusing the threat is emotionally compelling and well-thought-out.
There’s much less time spent underwater than the cover blurb might suggest. The characters spend most of the book on boats or on islands, and In the Dark of Dreams could be just the right escapist read when it’s cold and drizzly out. So long, winter; hello palm trees and beaches! Watch out for mercenaries…
—Kelly Lasiter
Within the Flames
Within the Flames is another solid entry in Marjorie M. Liu’s Dirk & Steele paranormal romance series. In this installment, one of the most lovable recurring characters in the series finds his mate. Eddie is assigned to find and protect Lyssa, a young woman living a vagabond life in New York City. The two fall in love but must face demons both internal and external before they can be together.
In many ways, Lyssa is a perfect match for Eddie. Like him, she has powers that involve fire and is immune to being damaged by fire. Also like him, she has a troubled past filled with violence and loss. In Lyssa’s case, her future may be even darker than her past. She has a secret she keeps from everyone, a terrible destiny that she’ll do anything not to fulfill. Eddie is determined to protect her from the bad guys who are after her, but the greater threat may come from within. Liu beautifully depicts a relationship that doesn’t magically fix everything in Lyssa and Eddie’s lives, but helps them heal and makes the hurts more bearable.
It’s possible to read the Dirk & Steele novels as standalones, including this one. The aspect that loses the most, if you have read none or only a few of the earlier books, is the internal politics of Dirk & Steele. A power struggle within the organization is a part of Within the Flames’ plot, but I’ve only read two of the earlier books so I don’t think I felt the full weight of these events. Nonetheless, the romantic and suspense threads of the plot are strong and don’t require any prior knowledge.
I liked In the Dark of Dreams a hair better than Within the Flames, mostly because I loved both the childhood connection between Perrin and Jenny and the unusual nature of the antagonist. But Within the Flames is a good book featuring endearing characters, a moving love story, creepy villains, and some scenes that are truly “hot” both literally and figuratively. You’ll especially want to catch this one if you’ve enjoyed Eddie in the previous books. —Kelly Lasiter
Hunter Kiss — (2008-2011) Publisher: Demon hunter Maxine Kiss wears her armor as tattoos, which unwind from her body to take on forms of their own at night. They stand between her and her enemies, just as Maxine stands between humanity and the demons breaking out from behind the prison veils. It is a life lacking in love, reveling in death, until one moment — and one man — changes everything.
The Iron Hunt “When I was eight, my mother lost me to zombies in a one-card draw.”
That’s the first sentence of Marjorie M. Liu’s The Iron Hunt, and it’s just about perfect as opening lines go. It’s the primary reason I bought the book. Not only does it draw the reader in, eager to find out how and why this happened, but I’m also pretty darn sure it’s an Angela Carter reference. I love Angela Carter.
It would be misleading to suggest, though, that Marjorie M. Liu sounds like Angela Carter throughout The Iron Hunt. Liu has a different style, one all her own. I loved it. Liu’s style is unusual and won’t be to everyone’s taste. However, I found it visceral and poetic at the same time, and especially good when describing violence and magical visions. A couple of examples:
I tried to hold her to me, but she slipped away, and zombies took her place. So many. Shoulders broad as mountains. Packed tight. Breath hot. Stinking with sweat and winter wool. I could not see faces for shadows, but the zombie in the suit leaned close. Crooked his finger like a hook.
Waking dreams. Walking dreams. Swift dreams, black and white like old scratchy movies tinted and blurred with age. I dreamed in sparks and moments, and saw women in moonlight, pale as snow, hair as black as a raven’s wing — steel in their hands, always, sword bound, hair bound, in sunlight, tattoo bound — and I flew with them, I ran, and their bodies merged into one, a woman large as thunder, with eyes like the starry night, and wolves at her back.
Another aspect of The Iron Hunt that worked well for me was the mythos. Liu blends the myths of many cultures into her story, mixing Sumerian, Asian, Celtic, and Greek in a way that never feels forced or awkward; instead it gives the reader the sense that all of these cosmologies are valuable but incomplete shards of one vast long-forgotten whole.
Liu’s Seattle is painted in — I’d say vivid color, but this is Seattle, so it might be more accurate to say rainy grays. There is a real sense of place in The Iron Hunt.
A small gripe, and this may be a case where the cover-blurb writer sold the novel writer short: there isn't really a romantic subplot.
The blurb gives the impression that this is a major focus of the story when, in fact, the heroine and the love interest are already involved and their relationship is written more as background than as plot. I gather that this romantic subplot was actually resolved in a previous short story by Liu. It's not so much that the novel needs a major romantic plot; it's just that it was weird to find the plot quite different from the blurb. The real plot has more to do with Maxine's discovery of new and frightening powers and her growing awareness of her mother and grandmother's history.
I highly recommend The Iron Hunt to anyone who likes urban fantasy, tough female characters, and unique prose. I will definitely be looking up more of Liu’s work while I await the sequel to The Iron Hunt. —Kelly Lasiter
Darkness Calls
I
loved The Iron Hunt, and was eagerly looking forward to the sequel. (Has it really only been a year?) I'm happy to report that Darkness Calls is a worthy successor. This time around, Maxine and her boyfriend Grant are being hounded by a mysterious group of religious fanatics and by a horrifically creepy being who introduces himself as "Mr. Erl King," a name that will probably be familiar to myth-geeks like me. Seriously, this is one icky villain. I'm feeling nauseous right now, just remembering some of his scenes.
*shudder*
Anyway, like The Iron Hunt, Darkness Calls features lots of action, some humor, quirky secondary characters, and plenty of nods to mythology and folklore. I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Around the middle of the novel, I got briefly bogged down because I was a little confused about what was going on. Part of this was almost certainly my own fault. I didn't reread The Iron Hunt before starting Darkness Calls, and I'd forgotten some of the terminology and some of the world-building, which meant I couldn't always remember who belonged to what supernatural faction and who was trying to kill whom for what reason. Another aspect of the confusion was intentional. Maxine herself doesn't understand everything that's going on, especially not at first. The attempts on her and Grant's lives keep her running and fighting 24/7. When she does have the chance to take a breath and have a deep conversation, the "wise old sage" characters in her life are often more cryptic than helpful.
This feeling of confusion passed quickly, though. I was captivated by the events leading up to Maxine's showdown with the Erl King. The climactic scenes are harrowing and highly emotional. As an added bonus, there are a few more Labyrinth scenes and mystic-vision scenes. These are where Liu's prose and the epic scope of her imagination really shine.
Another thing that was done really, really well: the romance between Maxine and Grant. In The Iron Hunt, Grant was almost background. Maxine was dealing largely with her own personal demons (real and metaphorical). Here, Grant is an integral part of the plot, and so is the relationship between him and Maxine. Many urban fantasy series focus on the formation of new relationships, or on the dramatic turmoil of relationships in crisis. What Liu depicts is rarer in the genre: a long-term relationship that works. Maxine and Grant face tons of problems, but you get the sense that their love and commitment are a match for whatever comes their way. —Kelly Lasiter
A Wild Light
Reading the Hunter Kiss series is rather like having a strange but wonderful dream. You’re sometimes confused about exactly what is happening and why, but the vistas are breathtaking, the emotions are intense, and when you wake up, the only words that come to mind are “What a ride!”
In the hands of a lesser author, confusion can be a dealbreaker that leads to the book hitting the wall. But Marjorie M. Liu is not a lesser author. Her poetic prose and beautifully drawn character relationships keep you reading even when you — and Maxine — aren’t quite sure of what’s going on.
A Wild Light begins with the murder of Maxine’s grandfather, Jack. Maxine wakes to find Jack dead, and it appears that he has been killed with a blade that only Maxine can safely wield. Maxine has no memory of the murder, or of her boyfriend Grant. We follow Maxine as she tries to solve Jack’s murder and as Grant does his best to piece their relationship back together. At about the halfway point, A Wild Light goes from good to unputdownable when Liu drops a huge bombshell about the true nature of Maxine and of the “boys,” her five guardian demons. We also get some tantalizing glimpses of Maxine’s mysterious father.
Maxine faces some tough decisions that will determine the kind of person she will be. She is tempted by unimaginable power. Pitted against that is love: not just the romantic variety (though Maxine and Grant are one of my favorite UF couples) but also Maxine’s love for the boys, her late mother, Jack, and her friends at the Coop.
The phrase “a wild light” is used twice, once to describe something terrifying, the second time to describe something sublime. I think this juxtaposition is absolutely intentional on Liu’s part.
I recommend this novel, and the Hunter Kiss series in general, to readers looking for something a little different in urban fantasy. If you like sumptuous prose and lots of symbolism and metaphor, and if you don’t mind the occasional moment of confusion, this is the series for you. —Kelly Lasiter
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Tiger Eye
Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box 
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