I just finished reading Detonation Boulevard, by Craig Schaefer, book two in his Wisdom’s Grave trilogy.
This trilogy has been really, really good thus far. Book two brings all the players together for the first time–Faust, Black, Nessa and Marie, along with some other familiar faces and some really entertaining new ones. It’s wild pulp action from start to finish, and frankly I think this trilogy might be the best thing of Schaefer’s that I’ve ever read. Nessa spends the book becoming the archetype of the wicked witch, Marie becomes the armored protector knight, and there’s warlocks and cults everywhere. It’s great. Later in the book portals to other worlds open up, and that’s when things start getting really wild.
I really like urban fantasy for the way it can blend genres. Any kind of pulp adventure story you want, you can have. You want high fantasy? Bring in prophecies and wizards and step sideways into faerie. You want a noir detective story? Super easy. You want science fiction? Guess what, the Lovecraftian gods have spaceships crewed by zombies flying between worlds. Every kind of story can be represented, if you really want it to be, and in Wisdom’s Grave Schaefer seems determined to hit as many genres as he can. And it all works, which is crazy. It just keeps ramping up.
This is that good shit.