Midnight Blue-Light Special: InCryptid, Book 2

I listen to a lot of urban fantasy, and having done so a lot of story lines grow old.

This series is refreshingly different in many ways. Not everything seems logical but it is not disturbingly so.
This second book after "Discount Armageddon" is even better - it has it all: lots of never heard of fantastical creatures with different abilities, suspense, action, fights, family, feelings and a bit of romance (which wasn't overdone) and of course a lovable heroine.

The story is highly entertaining and I kept listening without my thoughts wandering off.

I couldn't have wished for anything different in the narration. Refreshing and fitting.

Now I am hoping for a third book in the series in the not to far future.

As I think to be able to value reviews for oneself it would be good to know this listener's preferences, so some of my favorite UF authors are:
Kim Harrison (The Hollows)
Ilona Andrews (Kate Daniels)
Jennifer Estep (Elemental Assassin)
Faith Hunter (Jane Yellowrock)
Kevin Hearne (The Iron Druid Chronicles)
Rachel Caine (Weather Warden)
Molly Harper
Charlaine Harris
and so on...

This is exactly what I expect from a Seanan Macguire book. Fun, thoughtful, funny and filled with well written action sequences.

The only thing I regret is that there's not more of it but then I pretty much expected that too.

If you like Ilona Andrews or Patricia Briggs you're going to love this.

I read the first book before the audiobook edition was published. I was reluctant to listen to book two, because I was afraid the narrator's performance wouldn't jive with my perceptions of the characters. The preview was enough for me to fork over the credit, and Emily Bauer's narration turned out to be fantastic.

This book is a fantastic addition to the InCryptid series. I never could get into Seanan McGuire's October Daye series, but Verity Price has turned me into a fan of her writing. It has just the right balance of action and romance to appeal to almost everyone and the supporting characters keep things fresh and thoroughly entertaining.

I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy this 2nd novel of the InCryptid Series, however, it pulled me in fairly quick and held me till the end. Although Verity goes through some extreme experiences in this book, the narrator's voice is so sweet and melodic that it sort of downplays the severity. I'm not saying that's good or bad, because otherwise she does a good job with the voices, it's just an observation. I look forward to reading more books as this series continues.

There is so much in this book that I like, and so much that bugs me.

Love:

Seanan McGuire presents an urban fantasy world and characters that are new, fun, and engaging. I especially love the supporting cast--the scary ones, the adorable ones, and the adorably scary ones.

The story elements are all there... but...

Hate:

The melodrama. McGuire raises the stakes by having her first-person narrator over-react to plot elements. It's a common writing strategy--when our main character is worried, we as readers are expected to also become worried--but that writing strategy fails horribly when the character is freaking out about things that do not merit freaking out. (We're talking, the heroine successfully takes out horrible monsters, then launches into melodramatic, fatalistic monologues because a much less scary and less horrible monster might show up). If this is really an emergency, if this situation truly merits melodrama and fatalism, I as a reader need to be convinced of that much more thoroughly than McGuire managed.

The plot in book 2 is much simpler than in book 1, which would not be a problem, except that plot twists are replaced by fake tension and melodrama. Also, at least 5 times in the course of the book, our smart, savvy, trained-from-babyhood heroine makes the same stupid mistake. This isn't a theme in the book--it's not like the character's error is highlighted as a fatal flaw. No, the main character makes stupid, uncharacteristic mistakes, presumably whenever the writer needs a way to raise the stakes.

There's also this whole recognizing-long-lost relatives by sight thing in the book that I found completely unbelievable...I even stopped listening to do research, and math, on how ridiculous the idea in the book was. I could rant, but I'll restrain myself.

When book 3 comes out, I'll probably save my credit and look for the book at my local library.

I loved the first InCryptid book so as soon as this one came out I got it. I love the mice and the relationship between Dominic and Verity gets more in depth. However, there were a few things that bugged me in this book. First, the story changes POV halfway through, going from Verity to Sarah and back to Verity. I can understand the reasons why the author might want to do this, but I didn't like it. I also had some problems with how it ended. It just seemed a bit unrealistic. Still, I'm waiting to see what happens next.