geekyDAW, paperback
416 pages, urban fantasy
Currently in print
Smoke and Mirrors, also by Tanya Huff
DAW, paperback
416 pages, awesome urban fantasy haunted house
Currently in print
Smoke and Ashes, still by Tanya Huff
DAW, paperback
416 pages, urban fantasy with cough syrup
Currently in print
***
Because this is a three-book review (all in one! no waiting!), spoilers are being kept to a minimum; what you'll get here is no more than you'd get off the back covers of the books themselves, with the addendum that, if at all possible, you should absolutely get all three volumes at once. Seriously, I was reaching for the next book while the covers of the first were still warm from my fingers. It's probably a good idea to read Huff's Blood books before tackling the Smoke trilogy, but it's not required; summation of the first series and the world is handled with a master's hand, making it entirely possible to start with Smoke and Shadows. (Given the existence of the Blood books, however, why would you want to? If you clicked this review because you were wondering whether or not you should even try Huff's work, the answer is a firm 'yes.' Now go get acquainted with Vicky Nelson. You'll enjoy the experience, as long as you manage not to piss her off.)
Now to the actual 'review' part of our program. The Smoke trilogy is a spin-off of Huff's popular Blood series, focusing on everybody's favorite wise-ass street punk, Tony Foster. Only Tony's cleaned up his act a lot from when we first met him. He has an apartment (trashed). He has a source of income that doesn't involve doing anything illegal (unless you really hate television). In a stroke of beautiful irony, Tony Foster, maybe the only man in the industry with first-hand vampire experience, is working on Darkest Night, a beautiful skewering of vampire detective shows everywhere. It's a gorgeous concept, made all the more entertaining by the author's firsthand experience from the production of Blood Ties.
All three books are fun, fast, and nowhere near as frothy as they initially seem -- they suck you in with humor and then slam you repeatedly against the wall with engaging characters, believable dialog, and situations that move swiftly from cliche to crisis. Huff helped to create the modern urban fantasy genre, and she knows how to use its tropes to her best advantage. I mean, seriously, this is a trilogy that deals with 'invasion of living shadows,' 'evil house,' and 'invasion of demons,' all without falling into the 'been there, done that' trap. I read a lot of urban fantasy, and there was no point in any of the three where I was going 'ho-hum, I wonder when she'll do something new.' It's all new.
Is there sex? Yes, but on my 'plot to porn' pie chart, the sex would be less than five percent of the whole. It only manages that much for genuine plot reasons in the third book. Is there swearing? Yes, because those books where the characters happily ravish each other on rooftops and kill legions of demons, yet never say 'fuck' are oddly unrealistic in a way that has nothing to do with rooftop sex or wholesale slaughter of the damned.
It's hard to go into details when you're covering a trilogy, and that means I'm going to wrap this up by saying these are excellent books, excellently and entertainingly written, and I heartily recommend them for anyone who enjoys making fun of television, urban fantasy, light horror, the works of Tanya Huff, or things that are made of win.
Just make sure you don't have to wait before reaching for the next one.
