Greywalker

Not sure what to say here....um, I finished it. Going to put it aside and revisit it in a few months. Maybe then I can enjoy it or at least be able to pinpoint why I didn't enjoy it. ( )

This is the first book in a series, and while it's obvious at the end that it is starting a series, it is not annoying about that fact. In other words, while the door is left wide open for sequels, there is no stupid cliffhanger leaving the reader dangling.

I did enjoy the premise for this book. Essentially, the main character is legally dead for a couple of minutes, and when she's resuscitated she is able to access the ghost world -- otherwise known as the Grey. (Hence the title.) It's a little annoying that she spends a lot of the book denying that the Grey has any impact on her, when she's so obviously (to the reader) being affected by it, but it is also completely believable that she would want to ignore anything which reminds her of the fact that she died, even just for a brief moment. I plan on eventually continuing with the series: if she's still rejecting the Grey to the same extent in book two, then I may reevaluate my opinion of how much this colors my enjoyment of the series. (AKA: in book one, it's okay. In book two, a lot less okay.)

The characters in the novel were fun. I liked the main character, and the bulk of the supporting cast. I especially like the guy she gets to help her with her alarm system, and while he's "just a friend" in book one, I kinda suspect he may turn into a love interest in later books. I like the witch and the scholar couple that she gets Grey lessons from, too. (Sorry for the lack of names... I'm feeling too lazy to look up spellings.)

I do have high hopes for this series. It seems like a true urban fantasy series, and I hope that it doesn't go the way of some other urban fantasies that turned into paranormal romance love-fests (Anita Blake, I'm looking at you). I do enjoy paranormal romances, don't get me wrong. But I miss the good urban fantasy books that have all of the paranormal without the tons of sex. Maybe this will fill that void? Here's hoping. ( )

My first encounter with Kat Richardson was in 2009 in Jim Butcher's "Mean Streets", an anthology of four Urban Fantasy PIs that included Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden, Simon R Green's Nightsider and Thomas E. Sniegoski's Remy Chandler.

Kat Richardson's "The Third Death Of The Little Clay Dog" was by far the best story in the book. Set in Mexico on the Day of the Dead, it was an accomplished short story, full of local colour, mysticism and intrigue, lit up by flashes of humour. It left me wanting to know more about the heroine, Harper Blaine and what it meant to be a Greywalker.

Six years later, I finally followed through and listened to the audiobook of Kat Richardson's "Greywalker", book one in the Greywalker series.

It's a competent, well-plotted Urban Fantasy with some new twists on the supernatural and the "Grey" that sits between our daylight world and the world of magic or perhaps death. It suffers a little from an Series One, Episode One feel but there's enough there to make me want to read book two: a diverse cast of characters, so good ideas on the supernatural, well written dialogue and good action scenes.

What I missed, which I remember being present in "The Third Death Of The Little Clay Dog" was a strong sense of who Harper Blaine is. I ended this "Greywalker" feeling that I hadn't yet met the real Harper Blaine. Instead, I'd read her "origins" story.

Still, it was an interesting origins story and I can see that Harper Blaine has lots of potential. ( )

Harper Blaine

Probably the most meh book I've read this year. It's also why it took me forever to finish. ( )