#242 C. E. Murphy: House of Cards

[bellinghman]

C. E. Murphy: House of Cards

Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Luna Books; Mar 2008
ISBN-10: 0373802633
ISBN-13: 978-0373802630
Category(ies): Fantasy

Book number 2 in the Negotiator series, after Heart of Stone, Margrit now knows of the five Old Races that share the world with us humans: Gargoyle, Djinn, Dragon, Vampire and Selkie. But she needs to find how she fits with all this. Not many humans know of the others, and her knowledge seems dangerous to her, with Janx the Dragon crime lord and his Djinn lieutenant Malik being the biggest threat. Oh, and her relationship with cop Tony is rocky at best.

There's quite a transformation in this one. At the start, Margrit is appears a minor player. By the time the novel ends, she is the pivot around which the rest turns. At around the three quarter mark, it appears that everything is almost tied up, but the loose ends that have been flapping around start whipping apart, and there is definitely stuff to be cleared up in the final volume.

I should also note that this is very much a crossover between the urban fantasy and romance genres. There is a near-constant focus on feelings and emotions that is missing from most SF and fantasy, and that is very much mizkit's trademark. But, though that was a bit of a contrast with the Greg Egan I'd just finished, I ended up reading this is one sitting, wolfing it all down.

Argh, it's months till the third book is released. In fact, this one doesn't come out till March!