| Patricia Briggs has an informative website. Besides book excerpts and the usual stuff, she has a nice resource for writers. |
Alpha and Omega — (2008- ) Publisher: Anna never knew werewolves existed until the night she survived a violent attack…and became one herself. After three years at the bottom of the pack, she’d learned to keep her head down and never, ever trust dominant males. But Anna is that rarest kind of werewolf: an Omega. And one of the most powerful werewolves in the country will recognize her value as a pack member—and as his mate.
 Cry Wolf
Patricia Briggs has chosen to write a spin-off series during the middle of her very successful Mercedes Thompson series. I am not complaining, because Mercedes Thompson has been really good, but it’s something of a surprise to me.
Briggs opens Cry Wolf, the first installment of Alpha and Omega, without a lot of explanation of what has happened in the story so far. We are taken straight to a scene in Chicago where Bran, the Marrok (Werewolf Overlord), is cleaning up the mess caused by his son Charles rescuing Anna. Anna is a different type of werewolf than we have known before and it makes for some interesting diversity as her specialized abilities become clear. The first 60 pages or so are spent on establishing a relationship between Charles and Anna while providing a smattering of background information on how she came to be in the horrible situation from which she was saved.
The best parts of Cry Wolf are in the last half of the book as the adventure really takes off. There are some particularly well written moments as Briggs continues to build the world that we know from Mercedes Thompson. Anna provides a new set of experiences and a completely different personality through which to explore Briggs' world. Briggs' superb writing skills are clear and she never reuses the same character types in her novels.
On the whole, Cry Wolf is a good book for a new reader of Briggs' urban fantasy work, but it’s a really good book if you have enough background information to appreciate what’s going on. For me, the additional insight into Mercedes Thompson's world and some of the history that is depicted more than made up for the rough first section of the book. Briggs is doing some really great stuff and for her fans, the addition of a parallel series is nothing less than a treat. —J.H.
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The Mercedes Thompson Books — (2006- ) A modern paranormal urban fantasy series. There will be at least seven of these. Publisher: Mercy Thompson's life is not exactly normal. Her next-door neighbor is a werewolf. Her former boss is a gremlin. And she's fixing a VW bus for a vampire. But then, Mercy isn't exactly normal herself. |
 Moon Called: Great story and more realistic than Anita Blake
Wow!! I sure hope that Mercedes Thompson will turn into a longer series because Patricia Briggs started off just right. The characters are believable, the way that Ms Briggs handles the various groups (far, vampires, lycanthropes) is something that you can actually see happening. The situation just feels real.
My favorite part is the main character. She is a tough kid with a bad attitude who knows her limitations. Unlike Anita Blake, Mercedes Thompson has limitations and vulnerabilities that are real. She gets her hurt like a normal person would and she's not able to just kill the bad guy despite it all. She's smart, she's talented and she is realistic. The rest of the cast fit in well around her and each seems to fit into the role they are given while remaining a developed character.
Last thing: NO PORN!!!! Patricia Briggs delivers the sexual tension without having to fall into the trap that Laurell K Hamilton fell into and has not extricated herself from. I hope that Briggs can keep the tension without having to get into unnecessary detail....just leave it to our imagination and most of us will be fine!
Great book, great start! —J.H.
Iron Kissed
This it the third volume of Mercedes Thompson and to this point Patricia Briggs has done a wonderful job of blending relationship stuff with some interesting, at times tense, urban fantasy. She has a great grip on the world she is writing and the main character is very well developed.
Ok, here comes the reason this got 5 stars. Mercedes Thompson gets the crap kicked out of her in a major, lasting way and it's completely her own fault. Talk about a great change from some of the other major urban fantasy authors who let their characters get away with being stupid over and over again. The details would spoil the story, but let's just say that Mercy stays true to who she has been so far and pays for it big time. Warning...what happens to her is really harsh and for some people may be a bit too traumatic for easy reading. This is an adult series, so I don't have a problem with it, but keep that in mind.
This book took a little while to get really going. There was a little more of the relationship/romance stuff than before, but it's not so cloying that it degrades the story into a romance. If you liked the first two Mercedes Thompson books, then this next one will be a treat. —J.H. |
Stand-alone novels:
  The Hob's Bargain — (2001) Publisher: To save her village from ruthless raiders, Aren of Fallbrook strikes a bargain with the Hob, a magical, humanlike creature imbued with the power of the mountains. But the Hob will exact a heavy price to defend the village--a price Aren herself must pay.
 The Hob's Bargain:Too short, but not bad.
I think that the ability to create a world that is filled with magic and unknown places is perhaps too great a task to do in one book. There are details and concepts that we, as readers, have become spoiled with thanks to the growing trend of long, multi-volume series.
In The Hob's Bargain, Patricia Briggs does a good job of telling a story within the constraints of a single volume. The main character is interesting, relatively likeable, but not terribly believable. That's probably due to the fact that there simply isn't enough space to do much in the way of character development.
The setting is a small village that goes through several disasters in a short time. The heroine loses her new husband,
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