Tim (T.A.) Pratt

Marla Mason — (2007-2009) Publisher: Meet Marla Mason–smart, saucy, slightly wicked witch of the East Coast… Sorcerer Marla Mason, small-time guardian of the city of Felport, has a big problem. A rival is preparing a powerful spell that could end Marla’s life–and, even worse, wreck her city. Marla’s only chance of survival is to boost her powers with the Cornerstone, a magical artifact hidden somewhere in San Francisco. But when she arrives there, Marla finds that the quest isn’t going to be quite as cut-and-dried as she expected… and that some of the people she needs to talk to are dead. It seems that San Francisco’s top sorcerers are having troubles of their own–a mysterious assailant has the city’s magical community in a panic, and the local talent is being (gruesomely) picked off one by one. With her partner-in-crime, Rondeau, Marla is soon racing against time through San Francisco’s alien streets, dodging poisonous frogs, murderous hummingbirds, cannibals, and a nasty vibe from the local witchery, who suspect that Marla herself may be behind the recent murders. And if Marla doesn’t figure out who is killing the city’s finest in time, she’ll be in danger of becoming a magical statistic herself…

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Blood Engines

On the surface, Blood Engines seems like any number of urban fantasy novels out there. Strong leading heroine? Check. Contemporary backdrop? Check. Supernatural action, sex, and sarcastic humor? Check, check, check.

Yet, Blood Engines has more going for it than you might think. For instance, in most of the urban fantasy series that I’ve read, the opening volume usually spends a lot of time on set-up and ends up leaving the reader with more questions than answers. Not so in Blood Engines, which is basically a self-contained story. Sure, there are a couple of threads left unresolved that will get picked up in the sequels, but never once did I feel that I was reading a set-up novel.

Part of the reason is that the leading protagonist reads like a veteran character — apparently Marla Mason has appeared in previous short stories by Mr. Pratt so that has something to do with it. So from the very beginning of the book Ms. Mason, chief sorcerer of the city Felport, and her associate Rondeau, an “inhuman psychic entity that long ago possessed the body of a little homeless boy,” are thrown into the fire. In short, the two are in San Francisco searching for a powerful artifact that will help prevent a rival from usurping Marla’s position as chief sorcerer. What should be a fairly simple job becomes vastly more complicated when an acquaintance turns up murdered and the artifact in question is stolen for use in a diabolical, world-threatening plot that has something to do with poisonous golden frogs, hummingbirds, blood sacrifices, and Aztec mythology. Throw in a sex party, alternate universes, ancient gods, some interesting magic concepts, and a wild cast of supporting characters, and you have a story that is just as fun and outrageous as it sounds.

Character-wise, Blood Engines is a bit of a mixed bag. Marla Mason is obviously the star of the show getting the bulk of the third-person narrative, and what I liked about her is that she knows what she’s about (her strengths and her weaknesses), she doesn’t take crap from anyone, and even though she’s the good guy, she’s definitely not a saint. Plus, besides being a “jill-of-all-trades” sorcerer, she also has martial arts training, possesses a knife that can cut through the metaphysical and owns a bad-ass cloak that is as powerful as it is dangerous.

Rondeau meanwhile is not human, comes from unknown origins and has a gift for tongues, or more specifically Cursing. Basically, there’s not really that much to Rondeau and he’s more or less there for the banter and the funny quips, but he is open sexually, which is actually a common theme with some of the other characters, including Marla. Then there’s Bradley Bowman (or ‘B’), a former actor with psychic abilities who shares part of the narrative with Marla. While B isn’t that well-developed, I liked him better than Rondeau and I hope that he’ll be featured more prominently in future books. Of the rest, there’s your usual blend of villains, allies, and those that fall somewhere in-between. Mutex plays the main baddie and while he had some impressive abilities, the motives behind his overall actions were a bit thin. Personally, my favorites in the whole book were some of the side characters, particularly such unconventional sorcerers as the pornomancer Finch, the technomancer Dalton, and the cannibal Bethany.

Regarding the writing in the book, I haven’t had the pleasure of reading any of Mr. Pratt’s other works so I can’t comment on that, but from what I’ve seen in Blood Engines I’d say he’s pretty competent. The author displays a good grasp of the world that he’s created — specifically the magical elements (some of which are quite unique). His research seems detailed (especially the city of San Francisco), and he knows how to write a page-turner — I finished Blood Engines in just over a day.

The only thing I didn’t like was that I thought the metaphors were too simple and clichéd and I thought the pop culture references (Bruce Lee, the Beatles, Godzilla) too obvious, though I did see one to the post-rock band …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of the Dead.

All in all I enjoyed Blood Engines. It's worth checking out, especially if you’re a fan of urban fantasy and want to try something that’s recognizable, but distinctive. —Robert Thompson

Poison Sleep

Urban fantasy is all the rage these days. While I’m concerned about the eventual over-saturation of the market, it’s definitely a good time to be a fan of the sub-genre, especially when writers like T.A. Pratt are given the chance to shine. Tim Pratt, the winner of the 2007 Hugo Award for the short story “Impossible Dreams,” also left a positive impression on me with his novel Blood Engines and its rewarding blend of wacky characters, comedy, supernatural action, and imagination. Granted, I had a few issues with the writing, but overall I really enjoyed the book and looked forward to the sequel.

Whereas Blood Engines took place in San Francisco, Poison Sleep finds Marla Mason back in her element as the chief sorcerer of Felport — a made-up city in an alternate contemporary world where magic is real, but kept hidden from the eyes of ‘ordinaries’. Of course responsibilities come with any position of power, and Marla’s plate is overflowing. Not only is there the usual in-house bickering that she has to contend with from rival sorcerers, but on top of that a patient has escaped from the Blackwing Institute for the criminally insane. At first Marla isn’t too worried, but after she gets a glimpse of Genevieve Kelly’s awesome reweaving abilities — being sucked into her dreamland, palaces appearing in the real world, creating a living nightmare who wants to usurp Genevieve’s power for his own and conquer the planet — she makes it her top priority. On top of all of this, there’s also a slow assassin out for Marla’s head and two new men in her life (Joshua Kindler, who was hired to handle diplomatic matters, and personal assistant Ted), one of whom is a spy. Needless to say, things are looking pretty bad for Marla.

Thankfully, the greater Marla’s problems are, the more entertaining Poison Sleep becomes, as T.A. Pratt delivers a story crackling with energetic pacing, witty sass, and a smorgasbord of wild magics like Marla’s double-edged cloak (one side heals the wearer, the other turns her into a ruthless killing machine), Cursing, probability-shifting, technomancy, Medusa’s blood which can birth new creatures, chaos magic, sympathetic magic, and a symbiotic green mold that does a pretty good impression of Venom from the Spider-Man comics. There’s also a little romance involving Marla and Joshua, but keeping in line with the rest of Tim’s work, this is not your typical romance as Kindler is a lovetalker: he possesses a supernatural power that makes people fall in love with him. This brings up the interesting question: Is Marla in love with Joshua as an individual, or just his magic?

Regarding the characters, Marla is obviously the focus of the book, just like in Blood Engines, and she again shows how much of a bad-ass she is. The third-person narrative is also split between the renegade slow assassin Zealand who is contracted to kill the chief sorcerer, and Nicolette, a chaos magician serving under the diviner Gregor, one of Marla’s main rivals. If you regularly read urban fantasy, you've probably noticed that most series are narrated via the first-person, which offers a certain appealing intimacy. However, the alternating third-person point of view has its benefits too, such as offering greater insights into the motives of other characters, keeping readers in the thick of the action, and perhaps most importantly, surprising the reader. Fortunately, Mr. Pratt likes to keep readers on their toes, so there are some pretty interesting surprises that just wouldn’t be possible with a first-person POV. As far as the supporting players, I’m not sure if this bunch is as eccentric as the ones found in Blood Engines but Genevieve, Reave the king of nightmares, and Joshua Kindler definitely make a strong case. It was also nice to see more of Hamil, Marla’s consiglieri, as well as Felport’s other prominent occupants such as the technomancer Langford, Viscarro, Ernesto, the Chamberlain, Granger, and the Bay Witch. One thing that surprised me was how small a role Rondeau had in Poison Sleep. I know I found him a bit one-dimensional in Blood Engines, but I have to admit that I missed his banter.

Apart from the wildly imaginative story, the fun cast of characters and the improved writing, what I liked most about Poison Sleep is that it is almost completely self-contained. Even though there are references to Blood Engines and the short story “Grander than the Sea” (from The Solaris Book of New Fantasy), those are few and really have no bearing on what happens in the book.

That brings me to the heart of the matter about Tim Pratt’s Marla Mason novels. While the series obviously possesses certain similarities to other urban fantasy books currently out there, it’s the little differences that really separate Blood Engines and Poison Sleep from the competition: the third-person narratives, the novels being self-contained, the strong supporting characters, the plot manipulations, the inventive magical concepts, and so on. Between the two, I personally thought that Poison Sleep was the stronger and more entertaining novel, but they are both terrific reads. If Tim Pratt keeps this up, the Marla Mason series will be one of the first I will recommend to readers who want to discover great urban fantasy. —Robert Thompson