192 Worshippers
57 Worshipping
amishoard

Ami's Hoard

To Read is To Live

Death Blows  - D.D. Barant Plot summary ... Since this is for personal reason -- so I can remember -- I put it under spoiler tag.Jace and Charlie, her golem partner, is investigating murders that seems to be taking inspiration from comic books. In the alternate world, comic is forbidden. After a man named Fredric Wertham took blood of his victims and adding it to the ink of the printing press, back in 1950s. The victims of current murders are members of Bravo Brigade, a government team of people with superpower: Sword of Midnight, Solar Centurion, Doctor Transe, African Queen, and Quicksilver Kid, who took down Wertham and his cult..The second book definitely hooks me better than book #1. Mainly because I like Jace here ... she no longer seems ungrateful to me. I enjoy her banter with her golem partner, Charlie. It feels like they've been together for years. For example:..."I take one day off", he says, "and you almost get yourself killed.""Almost being the operative word.""Killed being the operative world. Almost is the word killed used to beat up in high school"...I also love how I keep being 'punched' by twists. From Gretchen being pregnant, to Cassius's relationship with the Bravo Brigade, then the past of Dr. Pete, then the victim (whom I thought at first was behind the whole thing), to how the mystery is solved. It doesn't really 'feel' like urban fantasy, it is more like a very good murder mystery/police procedural story, except it happens in alternate reality, with lycanthropes, and vampires, and golems. I also enjoy the idea of comic world -- while I don't read comic, I think it's an interesting theme to be part of a murder investigation. The additional myth, like how vampires procreate, is also fascinating.I guess I definitely will read the next book, especially with so many things/clues given here Stoker is looking for Ahasuerus codex; Ahasuerus is the father of all golems, and apparently the only one who probably can get Jace back to real world; Cassius becomes the surrogate father for Gretchen's daughter, so he gives life force to the baby and ages 9 years older -- which I guess will make him looks older than 18 years old, perfect for Jace *grin*; as well as the death or Dr. Pete as Jace knows it, and there's an 'different version' of him, called himself Tair, which is definitely NOT like Dr. Pete that we know in book one. It's just so good!!